Bobby Sarma Baruah requests you to see her film The Golden Wing at Jio MAMI FF

“My 86-minute film on the legendary folk singer Pratima Baruah Pandey is being screened at the 18th Jio MAMI Film Festival with STAR. There will be two screenings, the first one on 23rd October, at 10.30 am at the PVR Phoenix multiplex and the second on the 26th, at 7.30 pm, at PVR ECX multiplex. Do try and catch it,” she says, on the line from Guwahati, Assam. Of course, she will attend the festival herself, as a guest. In Assamese, the title of the film is Sonar Baran Pakhi.

Popularly nicknamed Hastir Kanya (daughter of elephants) Pratima Baruah (1935-2002) was born in the royal family of Gauripur in present day Dhubri district of Assam, adjoining West Bengal, in India and neighbouring Bangladesh. Legendary filmmaker Pramathesh Chandra (P.C.) Baruah was her uncle. It was her father Prakitish Chandra Baruah, alias Lalji, who gave her the strength to fight all odds that came her way

As a child, as she accompanied her father in many an elephant hunting expeditions, she remained close to the mahouts, and learnt their unique ways of singing. However, other royal family members disapproved of the young girl humming rustic ballads, many of them warning her that nobody would marry her if she continued to practice the lokageets (folk songs. Wedded to music as she was, the child was thoroughly captivated by the lilting notes that resonated in the air around her, also mastered other forms of folk songs. She was brought to the tinsel world by none other than film-maker Dr. Bhupen Hazarika, the legendary singer-composer, in his debut feature Era Bator Sur, in which Pratima sang a Goalpariya Lokageet. That was the beginning. The rest is history

It was her pioneering efforts that popularised Goalpariya Folk Songs and brought it to wide acceptance and national recognition. Although she was born and educated in Kolkata, she never shied away from her close touch with the people of her ancestral place. Her innocent nature and down-to-earth personality, devoid of ersatz, ensured she always was in the hearts of the common people.

Pratima predictably remained untouched by all the fame and acclaim that she rightfully earned. Laurels came her way--the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the Padmashree honour given by the Government, and many more titles fondly bestowed on her by the cultural bodies from across the state of Assam. Pratima had not sung for fame and personal gains. She had sung for the pure love of folk music.

Bobby Sarma Baruah is an Indian Film-maker, Producer and Screenwriter, whose narrative content of socio cultural issues through cinema across North East and Assam, has been highly appreciated. Her debut feature film, Adomya, was screened as an official selection at more than fifteen international film festivals all over the world. Sonar Baran Pakhi is her second feature. She is also an accomplished poet and short story writer in Assamese. Currently she is pursuing her doctoral research for a PhD on influence of folk culture of Assam in Assamese cinema.

CAST

Pranami Bora

Pranjal Saikia

Kamal Priya Ray

Nilim Chetia

Dhruba Jyoti Kumar

Jagadish Deka

Nilimoy Pradhani

Jogiraj Choudhury

Dipika Bhakat

Sonali Ray

Arati Baruah

CHILD ARTISTE

Susmita Ray

SCRIPT

Jiten Sarma

Bobby Sarma Baruah

Bhaskar Jyoti Das

SCREENPLAY

Bobby Sarma Baruah

Bhaskar Jyoti Das

EDITOR

Ratul Deka

Le Reve in race against time for Jio MAMI’s 18th Mumbai FF with Star

A dream name alright: Le Reve. But beating the clock might be proving a nightmare to the workers who are preparing this renovated single screen cinema to be ready in time for the first screening on Friday morning. That is when Jio MAMI’s 18th Mumbai Film Festival (MFF) with Star kicks off a cross a multitude of theatres. Le Reve is the only one in the upmarket Bandra suburb of West Mumbai, which is now more an extension of the city itself.

Once part of the Globus brands store, operated by the Rahejas, a prominent real estate family, it housed a cinema too. Some years ago, Globus moved out, and the store was taken over by trillionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail, as a franchise for the British brand, Marks and Spencer. (Mukesh also owns the Jio mobile voice data brand, that is a prefix to the name of this festival). While Reliance continues to operate the multi-storeyed store, the Globus cinema has been acquired SPI Cinemas, who will run it for a nine-year lease. The 259-seater single screen will now be called Le-Reve (the dream), and it will be state of art with 4K projection and Dolby Atmos. Earlier, the cinema was tipped to open at the auspicious Diwali festival time, at the end of the month. But then we heard it is one of the venues of the MFF, which begins on the 21st, after an exclusive opening ceremony on the 20th, where commoners are excluded.

I decided to take a look at the new, spruced up and souped up premises yesterday. To my utter surprise, nobody around knew anything about a film festival, or of MAMI. Yes, they said there was a cinema under construction, but it would take weeks to complete. As a concerned journalist, I conveyed this to the festival organisers and the PR lady. They told me I was just being difficult. Excuse me! I went there again today, to convince myself that what I had seen yesterday was not a mirage or virtual reality. Work was going on at great pace, but it still did not look as if the cinema would be ready in 45 hours. No signage, no decoration, nothing to indicate that a film festival is to be held here.

As I was clicking a picture of the exterior (the hall is upstairs, where I would not be allowed under any condition), a man called Pradeep moved towards me and showed concern at my act. He was on duty, to supervise part of the construction or to carry out some checks. When I told him I was a journalist, he called another, younger man, with rippling muscles and a body-builder physique. He introduced himself as Imran, and said he represented SPI Cinemas. He agreed that work was far from complete and that the BookMyShow team should have been there already, the day before, to make registrations and to issue accreditations to media, but was confident that they would be there the next day (20th).

I was not convinced that they would be able to complete the remaining work in less than two days, but he sure was. “You will not believe how much we managed to do in the last five days.” I live in Bandra, and would only be too happy if the auditorium is functional, come Friday morn. If the interiors, the air-conditioning, the toilets and the projection are done, that might just be possible. "We have named it Le Reve, and you will soon have a dream of an experience upstairs,” Imran added. Godspeed to him and his workers.

SPI Cinemas, Chennai's premier multiplex, popularly known as Sathyam Cinemas, is considered to be among the best in the country. It has five properties and 36 screens in Chennai, including Sathyam, Escape, Palazzo, S2 Theyagaraja, and S2 Perambur with a total of 8,342 seats. It operates another brand in Coimbatore, called The Cinema, which has 1,561 seats. By 2020, they would have more than 150 screens, mostly in the lucrative south market. Luxe Cinemas, which was opened in April 2014, was sold to Jazz Cinemas in October 2015.

On the exhibition front, Sathyam has been a household name in Chennai since 1974, and is the city's hottest entertainment destination. It was the first multiplex in India to have state-of-the-art digital screens. Apart from showcasing the latest blockbusters, it also houses Blur, the largest multi-format gaming facility in India, and the concept restaurants, ID and Ecstasy.

In 2009, SPI Cinemas announced its entry into feature film production, with the Tamil film, Thiru Thiru Thuru Thuru.

Founded 1974, Sathyam is headed by Kiran Reddy, who was the CEO, 1997-2011, and has been the Chairman, 2011-present.

Siraj Syed on how Jack Reacher 2: Never Go Back keeps running helter-skelter

Produced by Tom Cruise himself, this second edition of the ex Military Police (MP) Major Jack Reacher (Cruise)’s exploits has three other actors in key roles: Cobie Smulders plays Virginia Military Police Susan Turner (the new head of Reacher’s former unit), Danika Yarosh co-stars as the 15 year-old, who (as the movie’s synopsis gets you to guess) may or may not be Reacher’s daughter. And there is Patrick Heusinger, as The Hunter, Reacher’s deadly foe, in relentless pursuit. Cruise’s obsession with action super-hero roles is always under the scanner, and it is just as well that he allows other actors the space they need, to break the star mould monotony. It just about works.

Reacher busts a human-trafficking racket, smuggling Mexicans into the USA that is headed by a sheriff. The sheriff arrests Reacher for assaulting his goons, but Turner gets him released and takes the sheriff into custody. Turner is on the tip of a shocking revelation about gun and drug-running in Afghanistan by her own men, and is framed for espionage by the top brass. Reacher meets her lawyer and gets some leads. However, the lawyer is soon found dead, and Reacher is the accused. Then there is a girl, whose mother is claiming that Reacher is the father of her child, and has filed a paternity suit. Reacher gets Turner out of military custody, and grabs the girl, lest they target her, believing her to be Reacher’s daughter. A team of crack-shots sets after them in hot pursuit, believing that the lawyer had spilled the bean before he was murdered.

Lee Child is Jim Grant in real-life, a 62 year-old British thriller writer, known for the Jack Reacher novel series. The books follow the adventures of a former American military policeman, Jack Reacher, who wanders the United States. His first novel, Killing Floor, won the Anthony Award for Best First Novel. Never Go Back (reminds you of Bond’s ‘Never Say Never Again’?) is his 18th book, and why the producers made such a time machine jump they know best. Screenplay is the work of by Richard Wenk (The Magnificent Seven, Countdown, The Equalizer, The Expendables 2, The Mechanic), Marshall Herskovitz (The Last Samurai, Love & Other Drugs) and director Edward Zwick himself (Love & Other Drugs, Defiance, The Last Samurai ).

In terms of characterisation, Reacher bordering on the misogynist, while at least three women holding their own, is a good study in contrasts. Action is well-paced, perhaps just a little too far spaced out, the flats dominating the surges. In the end, it becomes all predictable, and the corruption in high places, plus a villain’s illogical ego-trip, that is taken too far, are elements that take away from the merits. The paternity suit plot point is a novel idea, not totally convincing, though. An interesting development is the scene in the new school, when Reacher realises that they will be traced through the girl’s mobile phone, and whisks her away. Here again, his foresight is marred by his casual throwing away of the phone from the car’s window. What changes, if any, have been made while adapting the book into a screenplay will be known to only those who have been exposed to both formats, not me, so no comments on that count.

In shaping Reacher 2, Edward Zwick (Defiance, Pawn Sacrifice, The Last Samurai) falls a little short when compared to the work of his predecessor on the franchise and frequent collaborator,  Christopher McQuarrie, who helmed the first Jack reachout. (McQuarrie and Edward Zwick run the film and television production unit, The Bedford Falls Company. Their last project was the 2010 film Love & Other Drugs). McQuarrie wrote and directed Jack Reacher, which had German film-maker Werner Herzog as the terrifying villain. Cleverly, the girl’s mother is never shown, except in a couple of passing shots. There is an overdose of running in the film, chase after chase being an all feet affair. Surprisingly, car chases in this movie are fewer than in any film of comparable genre. The marathons lose their novelty after a while, and even as the lead players run towards buses and buildings, and in and out of airports and hotels, the film meanders, and the narrative runs helter-skelter.

Tom Cruise, 54 (Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol , Edge of Tomorrow, Mission: Impossible), looks dispassionate, mouths a couple of witty one-liners and flaunts a torso that is appreciable for a 54 year-old. He has to work hard, as always, to pull of the muscles, hammer fist-fights and blazing guns incarnation. It is not his forté, and if he has managed to occupy that space for so many years, that is some credit. Cobie Smulders (The Avengers, Winter Soldier, Ultron), 34, is Canadian, and smoulders, with minimal skin-show and maximum commitment. Danika Yarosh as the irreverent schoolgirl is a delight. Watch out for her. Patrick Heusinger (TV) plays The Hunter with gusto, not helped one bit by the script.

Madalyn Horcher as Sgt. Leach exudes requisite genial humour. As the arch-villain, Robert Knepper (Hunger Games, Transporter) has a small role, while Aldis Hodge (A Good Day to Die Hard, Die Heard with a Vengeance) as the black MP in whom Turner places a leap of faith is impressive.

Rating: ** ½

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kidXMuWQ5kw

MAMI inaugural screening: 104-minute wait for 104-minute film

Organisers of the Jio MAMI’s 18th Mumbai Film Festival (MFF) with STAR chose actress Konkona Sen-Sharma’s directorial debut film, A Death in the Gunj as the opening film. In a continually perplexing schedule, the opening film, for the last couple of years, is not screened on the opening day, and not even at the inaugural venue. This year, the inauguration ceremony was held at the restored Opera House cinema.

Located at a place known by the cinema, Opera House, it was a theatre that hosted non-film performances including operas, once upon a time. Built in a vertical, boxed style, it was ill-suited for cinema screenings, but the premium seats gave a good enough view. I grew up in the neighbourhood, and my first memory of seeing a film was at Opera House (the ‘Royal’, a derivative of its London counterpart, was never used, probably because the British had left by then). Actually, it could still justifiably use the moniker 'Royal', because it was run by royals of Gondal, in what is now Gujarat

The film I saw was a classic, Do Ankhen Barah Haath (Two Eyes, Twelve Hands), about a jailor who tries to reform six hardcore criminals. It was produced and directed by the legendary maker V. Shantaram, and released n 1957, when yours truly was all of five years old. Since it ran for 60 weeks, it was dubbed a diamond jubilee hit. Subsequently, I saw many films there, including Beti Bete and Naya Qanoon. Considered ideal for 'family social' films and tear-jerkers, it played host to many silver jubilee and golden jubilee films. Rajesh Khanna, who was a Superstarduring the 60 and 70s, had two major hits running 200 metres apart, Aradhana in Roxy and Do Raaste in Opera House. Shutters were downed in 1993, and it is a full twenty years since anybody has seen a film at Opera House.

When it was announced that MFF would hold its opening ceremony there, I was really keen to rekindle my memories. But I had not anticipated what I should have, given the recent track record of the MFF organisers. MFF, currently headed by a film-critic as Director, has a strict policy when it comes to events like inaugurations, closing ceremonies or receptions of any kind: only VIPs are allowed. Never mind if you happen to be a critic or film journalist, however senior; you have to be on their VIP list to get invited. Else, you should be a cameraman. Video-cameramen have the big advantage. Visual glamour is waht they are interested in. I do not belong to any of these classifications, so no show! A journalist colleague, who has come all the way from Kolkata to attend MFF as an accredited media-person, had never seen or heard about Opera House. He went to the function, on an impulse, but, obviously, was not allowed to enter. Having travelled some distance, he merely got to view the grand edifice from outside. That was 20 October, and that was how MFF was flagged off.

We, mere mortals, headed for our chosen venues on the 21st, when screenings began. Many of us chose Regal, another relic of the British era, because it is a single screen cinema with a large capacity, and the opening film was to be shown there, at 7 pm that day. “I can’t invite you to the inaugural function, but do come for the opening film,” were the exact words of MFF in-house PR person, Anisha SenGupta Yanger. Sure. I would like to see A Death in the Gunj, but what if this too was restricted to ‘VIP’s? I asked her to let me know whether my Press badge would suffice/I would be able to book a seat on the BookMyShow website/I would need her good offices to enter the auditorium. Still waiting for her reply.

Meanwhile the BookMyShow staff on duty at Regal revealed that about 80-90% of the approximately 1,200 seats at Regal had been blocked by the festival management, and the remaining 10-20% had been offered by BookMyShow to those who had logged in early, so there was no chance of my getting a seat. I impressed upon him to take a fresh look, since it was already the afternoon of 21st.October, and maybe, just maybe, he could find a seat for the show, which was supposed to start a few hours later. Luck was on my side, for once, and I got a seat.

Now, foreseeing and fearing a mad rush, I queued up at 6.20 pm, along with about 300 others who had reserved seats (entry is thrown open to other badge-holders once those holding reservations are accommodated), and was seated in the balcony, by 6.45 pm. Apparently, the show had been rescheduled, from 7 pm too 7.30 pm. Patience, patience! I spotted Anisha, and said Hello to her. Courtesy don’t cost nothing. She nodded back, and that was that. After that, the disciplined audience’s patience was tested to the limit, as the film rolled only a few minutes before 9 pm.

No, there was no technical issue. Traffic in Mumbai is a curse, but try telling that to the delegates and media-persons who shuttle from venue to venue. The organisers were probably waiting for Konkona, and possibly other VIPs, to arrive. Nobody waits for more than 15 minutes at any international festival. In fact, protests start getting vocal after 10 minutes. I cannot recall a single occasion in 40 years when there was such an extraordinary delay. Full marks to the endurance of the film-buffs at Regal that day of reckoning. But did we deserve this? Finally, Konkona was presented, and she briefly introduced the film.

Konkona is the daughter of Bengali/Hindi/English actress-director Aparna Sen and science author and journalist,n Mukul Sharma. Aparna’s father was the distinguished film-critic, professor, film-society veteran Chidanand Dasgupta. Konkona started acting at age 4, and won the Best Actress National Award for the English film Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, directed by her mother. Ranvir Shorey, her husband of five years (since separated), is playing a central character in Gunj. And the story is by Mukul Sharma. With such redoubtable credentials, and with an eulogising introduction, she just had to give us a great film. Did she?

Honey Trehan and Abhishek Chaubey have produced the film, which has a chèf’s special recipé type of casting. Based on a real incident turned into short story, the 1979-set drama is set in McCluskieganj (or Gunj, local for area), a former Anglo-Indian settlement in Jharkhand (then undivided Bihar). 'A family outing takes an unexpected turn with the disappearance and death of one of the guests'. And guess what? Konkona was born in 1979!

Here s a short summary of the films I have seen so far. Reviews might take time. Could manage eight full-length productions, and one 25-min short, in three days. Not a good score. Traffic jams ensured I missed Death in Sarajevo. The Gunj Marathon cost one film for sure. A short bout of illness kept me out of two more. The count should have been 12, at least, discounting the short.

Obviously, I have my work cut out for the next four days.

·        A Death in the Gunj: ***

·        The Road to Mandalay: ** ½  

·        Swiss Army Man: *** ½

·        The Neon Demon: * ½

·        You Are My Sunday: *** ½

·        Apprentice: **

·        The Golden Wing: *** 

·        Sing (short): ** ½

·         Mango Dreams: **

Siraj Syed reviews Shivaay: She: Vaay? He: Vaay not?

Shivaay is a balanced film, in a convoluted kind of way. There is a germ of a story and there is major plagiarism of tracks from both Hollywood and Indian films. There is breath-taking action and there are pointless stunts. There is high proficiency acting and there is insult to talent. There is a small component of genuine humour and a large dose of unintentionally silly moments. There is organic unity in the screenplay when you match the beginning with the end and there is disunity for a large part in between. Finally, there is obeisance to Lord Shiva, and trivialisation of his legacy.

Shivaay is the story of an extraordinary man in an extra-ordinary circumstance. Young, cool, contemporary, swift and foolish, Shivaay (Ajay Devgn), is a Himalayan trek guide, apparently an orphan. When asked by a Bulgarian trekker Olga (Erika Kaar) why he spells his name like he does (Om Namah Shivay/Shivaay is a chant, in praise of Lord Shiva), instead of the conventional ‘Shiva’, he replies, “Why not?” A Hindi-speaking Indophile, she proceeds to inquire what traits of Lord Shiva does he possess, like the snake and the trishul (trident)? He proceeds to expose parts of his neck, chest arms and back, which bear large tattoos of these figures. He also smokes weed.

A snowstorm/landslide gets Shivaay into hi-action mode, rescuing all the members of the 20,000 ft expedition that he is escorting, while the two romantic hopefuls find themselves together in an encapsulated tent, and precariously perched between collapsing snow-peaks. Now if that will not break the ice between the macho super-human and the pretty as a picture Bulgarian, what will? Passions get heated, and on the day of her departure for her native country, she discovers she is pregnant. He asks her to stay back, she refuses. Incredibly, Olga gives in to his pleas to stay back till the baby is born, leave the baby with him and then go her way. So she stays back a full nine months.

Born mute, Gaura (Abigail Eames) can hear, and dotes on her father, as he does on her. Until one day, when she is about 8, she discovers that her mother is alive, and insists on seeing her. Armed only with a years-old address, Shivaay decides to locate Olga. All hell is going to break loose within a day of his arrival in Bulgaria, but Shivaay is the kind of ‘everyman’ who is capable of transforming into a ‘mean destroyer’ when he needs to protect his family.

References to Taken (Liam Neeson starrer, written by Luc Besson) are a given, but hardly any of my reviewer colleagues have found similarities with Bajrangi Bhaijaan, which are spread in ample measure. A deaf girl and the protagonist (here a devotee of Lord Hanuman/Bajrang) out to trace her family in hostile Pakistan. Cut to a deaf girl and the protagonist (a devotee of Lord Shiva) out to trace the girl’s mother in strange Bulgaria, among child traffickers. Ajay Devgn takes credit for the story, which is divided in two main parts: the picturesque locales and love child happenings in India, and the mayhem let loose in Bulgaria. The latter gets the meaty portion, mainly on account of endless car chases and bullet fests. One and two are linked rather tenuously.

Screenplay and dialogue are the work of Sandeep Shrivastava  (Ab Tak Chhappan, Kabul Express, New York) and Robin Bhatt (Aakrosh, Golmaal 3, Krrish 3, Great Grand Masti). No wonder the Kabir Khan-like emotions surface so often (Kabul Express and New York were directed by Kabir Khan, who also directed Bajrangi Bhaijaan; BB was not written by Shrivastava).

Too many narrative glitches and corny dialogue spoil the narrative. Shivaay leaps across some seven mountain peaks, and 2,000 ft of terrain, just to meet some army-men below, from whom he has to collect money for services rendered. Indian Embassy staffer Anushka (Sayyeshaa Saigal) and Pakistani ace hacker Wahab (Vir Das)’s characters are ill-defined, with confused and contrived motivations. Olga says to Shivaay that he won’t be able to raise a child. His answer, “I raised myself, didn’t I?” Later, a paralysed Girish Karnad (Anushka’s father) tries to raise himself from his wheel-chair in a futile attempt to open the door to Shivaay, since Anushka is reluctant. She chides him, and he retorts, “Somebody has to rise.” (Ha and Haa).

Director Ajay Devgn (U Me Aur Hum) gets too indulgent for his own good. Whether it is the cyclical car chases, the mountain free-fall effects, the one-man killing machine, the use of hand-cuffs and climbing gear/pick-axes as weapons of mass destruction, the spraying of a million bullets that miss their targets, the protracted pounding Shivaay takes, with a glare for every blow, before catapulting into the Shiva-blessed human, he is happy to let the camera roll on. No wonder, after numerous leaps in story, the film is still all of 172 minutes long. (Bajrangi Bhaijaan was around 160 min). Aseem Bajaj’s competent lensing of some stunning visuals and cart-wheeling carriages would have suffered, but editor Dharmendra Sharma needed sharper scissors and a free-hand to reduce the duration by at least 30 minutes.

Dedication and intensity ooze from every pore of actor Ajay Devgn’s body, and those eyes....! Had he been a trained combatant, the character would have jelled. On the other hand, had he been a mere mortal, he would be even more convincing. By making him an understated super-hero, who gains extra strength when push comes to shove or punch comes to sledge-hammer blow, the script takes away sympathy. Yes, you do have a dilemma here: how do you show a trek-guide performing those souped-up caristhenics and looped-up peakrobatics, without giving him divine blessings? If not, how does he take on the police-infiltrated international Russian mafia single-handed?

Erika Karkuszewska (billed as the more easy-on-the tongue ‘Kaar’) is a Polish television actress who studied at the Warsaw School of Economics and got a master's degree. Later, she studied acting and dance at The Warsaw Academy of Theatre. After a BBC TV series, she makes a stunning large-screen debut in Shivaay, mouthing her lines in Hindi with the barest of accents. Wasted in the second half of the film, she stays with you much after the show is over. Welcome to India, Erika, gratulacje. And here comes Abigail Eames (Lawless, Harry and Paul's of 2s, Doctor Who, The Interceptor, Alleycats). In foreign lands, with foreign crews, playing a mute, this 12 (now 13) year-old prodigy joins hand with Erika to rescue the film from its lulls. Hail Abigail! However spontaneous and full-of-beans she might be, part of the credit must go to Devgn.

Daughter of actor-duo Sumeet Saigal and Shaheen (niece of yesteryear heroine Saira Banu), 19 year-old Sayyeshaa (a name as numerologically constructed as Shivaay) Saigal is a trained dancer and made her acting debut in the Telugu movie Akhil--The Power of Jua, last year. Shivaay is an okayish Hindi debut. Vir Das (Badmaash Company, Delhi Belly, Shaadi Ke Side Effects) oscillates between a nerd and a geek. Saurabh Shukla as the Indian Ambassador is out of sorts. Trying to be funny, he asks Gaura what she give him if he reunites her with her mother. Gaura, who is mute but can hear, offers him a chocolate. At which, he quips, sardonically, that she is prone to giving bribes, like all Hindustanis (Indians). In an ironical twist, the word “Hindustani” has been muted by the Central Board of Film Certification. An Indian Ambassador calling Indians corrupt?

Girish Karnad either walked on to the wrong set or is losing his sense of judgement while accepting parts. Markus Ertelt (German TV actor) is cast as Sgt. Nikolai, the policeman who runs the ghoulish racket. He has little else to do, besides the climactic slugfest. Swen Raschka, another German, plays Ivanovich, the eliminator glued to video games on his mobile phone. Raschka worked on Don 2 (fight choreographer) and was the stunt double for ShahRukh Khan. (He spells ShahRukh as Chahrukh on his website). Bijou Thaangjam (born Thangjam Biju Singh, seen in Mary Kom) is a self-taught Manipuri actor who plays Kancha (which means ‘boy’ in Nepali), a friend of the hero, passably well.

Mithoon has composed the film's score and sound-track, while British band The Vamps and composer Jasleen Royal are also a part of the music team. Bolo Har Har Har, the title track (Har Har Mahadev is another chant associated with Shiva) is written by Sandeep Shrivastava and sung by Mithoon, Mohit Chauhan, Sukhwinder Singh, Badshah, Megha Sriram Dalton and Anugrah. It recurs frequently, often at unduly high volumes. ‘Darquhaast’ (meaning ‘request’ in Urdu, written by Sayeed Quadri), is tender and innocuous. Arijit Singh and Sunidhi Chauhan are the singers. Some background music bits are delectable, mainly the Western orchestra stuff. Just like in some sound effects, here too, the decibels test your auditory membranes.

In the end, all things considered, my rating of Shivaay is very much like the film: a cliff-hanger. Neither down nor up.

Rating: ** ½

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsV4GiuwEsg

MAMI’s 18th MFF schedule had gaping holes

Multiple venues spread far and wide, across the Western and Eastern, Southern and Northern tips of the linear city of Mumbai meant that persons living in those areas where the cinemas are located would have easier access to them and would save a lot of time commuting. If we measure the distances between the farthest separations, it could take 2 ½ to 3 hours for a passenger to reach the corresponding venue. Include return travel, and you are talking about 6 hours of journeying. Most films at film festivals are 1 ½ hours long, so a film-buff could end-up missing four films to catch just one, if the said film-buff was really keen on seeing, and managed to get a seat, for that one film. It could also mean seeing just one or two films a day.

Jio MAMI’s 18th Mumbai Film Festival (MFF) with STAR was spread across seven screening venues. Two of these, PVR Icon and PVR ECX, are located in the Western suburbs, within 500 metres of each other. In the case of Regal (South Mumbai) and PVR Mulund, the distance between the two is 43 km. Situated in between are PVR Phoenix (Central Mumbai, Lower Parel), Le Reve (beginning of the Western suburbs, Bandra) and PVR Kurla (beginning of the Eastern suburbs). Now let us look at the number of screens MFF had ear-marked: 6 at Icon, 5 at ECX, 1 at Le Reve, 4 at Phoenix, 1 at Regal (single screen), 1 at Kurla and 1 at Mulund, which add up to a whopping 19 screens. That is some number.

MFF scheduled five slots/day, at which rate we would be in for 95 screenings every day. Yes, 95! Over seven days, October 21-27 (discounting the opening day, October 20, when only glitterati were invited, and no screening was held), we would then expect 665 screenings. Between 150 and 175 films were to be shown, so every film could therefore be screened four times. Obviously, this could only happen if the festival had permission to screen the films so many times each. On second thought, is every film shown at a festival worth being shown three or four times? As a rule, most films are shown once, some twice and an exceptional film is projected thrice. Chances are that you would miss your favourite film, even it was shown thrice, on two grounds: no seat and/or venue too far away. So what happened to all those 665 slots?

Many of them were left vacant. On a typical day, 25 October for example, 37 slots were empty across the 19 cinemas, and another five were reserved for school shows. 42 EMPTY SLOTS ON ONE SINGLE DAY. Up to four successive shows were not held at some venues. So, you either had to travel great distances to try your luck elsewhere, or go back home. Newly opened and touted as the state-of-the-art venture of a group that has just come to Mumbai, Le Reve had only 26 slots scheduled, out of a possible 35 (5 x 7). Regal, which can seat 1,166 and should have had the maximum films scheduled there, fared slightly better, at 27 shows over the entire festival.

To complicate matters, a two day film Mela (fête) was held at Rang Mandir, on the 22nd and the 23rd. On both days, it was confined to the normal office timing of around 10 am to 6 pm. Only one cinema, Le Reve, is within easy reach from this auditorium. There were several sessions and star personality interviews conducted, but if you attended even one, you would have to miss 2/3 films. Incidentally, when you include Rang Mandir as a festival venue, add it to the seven cinemas listed above, and the inaugural who’s who bash at Royal Opera House, you will find that MFF was spread across nine locales. However, in the end, there were so many stories of missed films that the spread turned out to be thin and miserly.

Siraj Syed on 18th MFF: Godless, Madly, Red Turtle meets Barakah

Far from catching up on film viewing shortfall, I could see fewer films in the second half of the 18th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival (MFF) with STAR. It was a deadly combination of several factors: Tickets sold out, no luck with walk-ins, inability to wake up early, traffic jams and unavoidably long travel times, the desire to attend two or three non-screening events, the choice of some films over others shown at the same or almost same times and no luck with the chosen films, the clash with a regular Friday release press screening, and more.

Yes, I might be able to catch up films like I, Daniel Blake (UK-France, directed by Ken Loach, imported by former MFF Director S. Narayanan) and a few other common selections, at IFFI Goa, where I have been more successful in getting entries, for a host of reasons that will be discussed in another posting.

At the end of MFF, here is the second half of my assessment of the fare I was privy to.

>Diamond Island, France

The umpteenth re-enactment of how a young (Cambodian) village-boy gets work in a big city luxury complex (called Diamond Island) and the poverty-ridden tale of his family. It was competently, sometimes slickly, done, but I would not vote for it in a competition.

Rating: ** ½

>Barakah Meets Barakah, Saudi Arabia

By their norms, this must be a really permissive film. Nevertheless, it was amusing, sometimes really funny, and occasionally critical of the social fabric in Saudi Arabia, reminding us that they were liberal just two generations ago. Performances were fluent and the romantic comedy never went over-board.

Rating: ***

>Man with the Binoculars, India

I owed it to Rima Das to attend her show, having written about her film in these columns. A well-intentioned film, it drifted into the boring, vacuous milieu that made t difficult to sit through its 100 minutes. Lush landscapes and solid acting could not make up for slow pace. No rating.

>Autohead, India

Murder, mayhem, prostitution, ‘unnatural’ sex (off-camera), jumpy camera, compendium of choicest swear words, a reality TV show like never before, and what have you. Autohead will have heads bobbing in all directions. Since I managed to see only the second half,

No Rating.

>The Red Turtle, France-Belgium

Delightful fairy-tale, without dialogue, and deliberately chosen primitive animation technique, all add-up to an experience that should be cherished. Just the right length at 80 minutes, the tale is full of allegory and lack of logic that demands a high degree of suspension of disbelief. May the tribe of these red turtles proliferate.        

Rating: *** ½

>Madly, MTV, Six stories from different countries

At 90 minutes, the film is tedious and convoluted, indulgent and ill-conceived, pretentious and pointless. For Indian viewers, the shot of Radhika Apte lifting up her house-coat to reveal unshaven territory (segment Clean Shaven, directed by, yup... Anurag Kashyap) might have some shock value. For the rest, even the Japanese sex club interlude, the other tale which has a narrative, nothing quite works.

Rating: * ½            

>Godless, Bulgaria-Denmark-France

It had a basic premise: a physio-therapist steals the id cards of her old patients and sells them in the black-market. After that, it was luckless, plotless and clueless. Couldn’t think of spending 99 minutes with the Godless, and made my move towards the exit, even as a colleague seated on my right notched-up 40 winks.

No Rating.

As was only to be expected, I was not invited to the closing film screening, and open tickets ran out fast. Likewise, I was not invited to the closing ceremony and announcements of winners. Obviously, no reportage on either count.

(Ms. Alin Taşçiyan-President Fipresci, Ambassador of Turkey to India--H.E. Mr. Burak Akçapar and Leading Actor--Mr. Ali Sarp Levendoğlu)

Turkey--key country at Mumbai Fim Festival, by Siraj Syed

‘Zabaan-e-yaar-e-man Turkey, va man Turkey na mee daanam’ went a duet in the Hindi film Ek Musafir Ek Haseena, made in the late 50s/early 60s. The lines are not in Turkish, but Farsee (Persian), and translate as ‘My love(r)’s language is Turkish, and I do not know Turkish.

Neither do I. But the name of my mother-tongue, Urdu, is derived from Turkish, and Turkish films have often been a delight. The real delight, a visit to the country whose capital, Istanbul, Europe’s largest city, was once named as the first choice of a world capital by Alexander, the Great (Sikandar-e-Aazam) remains a dream so far. Not for too long, I hope.

For the first time, a high level delegation of over 42 (34 of them listed below) of the leading CEOs from the Film and TV Industry in Turkey, leading producers, directors and production houses, were here to attend the Festival, and showcase some of their best films to Indian audiences.

The festival brought together a selection of 10 of the best Turkish films, especially curated for Indian audiences--Album, My Mother’s Wound, Bride, Snow Pirates, Winter Sleep, Ember, Blue Bicycle, Dust, Whisper If I Forget and 8 Seconds.

Indian media had the opportunity to meet the Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism, Huseyin Yayman, the President of TESIYAP (read below), Mr. Birol Guven, famous, leading actors in Turkey, Hazal Kaya, Sarp Levendoglu and Kaan Tasener. This media briefing was hosted by the Turkish Ambassador H.E.  Burak Akcapar, and Mumbai Consul General H.E. Sabri Ergen, on 25 October, at the J.W. Marriott Hotel. There was a large contingent of Indian media present, who showed great interest in the meeting, where important messages were conveyed. It was an interesting engagement. Anupama Chopra, who was held up at another event, was eagerly awaited, and did come, albeit much later than expected.

Alin Taşçiyan, Film Critic & President of FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics), and Curator of the Turkish Films being screened at MFF this year, moderated the press briefing session.

A capsule of what was said:

“CULTURE AND ART, ABOVE POLITICS”

Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism, Huseyin Yayman, invited Indian Film-makers to Turkey, and said:  "We want to increase the cultural and political values between Turkey and India; We believe art and culture to be above politics"

"WHEN WE DEVELOP CULTURE AND ART EXCHANGES, WE BUILD MUCH MORE LONG-LASTING RELATIONSHIPS"

In his speech, Mr. Huseyin Yayman said, "You already see images of Istanbul in the TV series Feriha, but I invite you to come and stay in Istanbul. Between Turkey and India, there are such important historical bonds. I have come to offer you to go further in increasing the culture-art relations between Turkey and India, on behalf of our President and Prime Minister. When we develop culture and art based exchanges, and build enduring we build really long lasting relations. In this sense, the Mumbai Film Festival is very important to us."

Indicating the progress of relations between Turkey and India, H.E. Mr. Burak Akcapar, the Turkish Ambassador to India from New Delhi, pointed out the global importance of the relation between Turkey and India. And he added, "Having cinema for the whole progress in political, economical and cultural relations will build a bridge between two countries."

Consul General of Turkey in Mumbai, H.E. Mr. Sabri Ergen, indicated that the delegation had chosen specifically to attend this Festival and highlighted their intent saying, "We want to showcase our series, movies and talent."

Festival Director, Anupama Chopra, said it was exciting to welcome Turkey as a guest country.

“We are delighted to have Turkey as our Country of Focus at this year’s Jio MAMI 18th Mumbai Film Festival with Star. We reached out to the Counsel General of Turkey, H.E. Erdal Sabri Ergen, who immediately swung into action about the idea of putting together films and various initiatives from Turkey. From a long list, we chose 10 films, across genres that represent this country, but more importantly, define this country's persona. There’s a film from 1973 (The Bride), as well as the recent, highly acclaimed ‘Winter Sleep’, and a host of other contemporary films, all of which give you a perspective of the country, as good films should.”

"WHEN YOU START SEEING TURKISH SERIES, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO STOP"

Addressing the media, the President of Tesiyap, Mr. Birol Güven, spokesperson of the Delegation and CEO/Founder/Producer of Mint Motion Pictures, highlighted that they want to have co-operation and co-productions and said: "We are here to know you better and to see your culture. And we want to tell more about ourselves because we don't know each other, even though we have so much in common. I would like to warn you that when you start seeing our Turkish series, you will not be able to stop. But don't worry, we have a lot of series"

"I AM SO HAPPY ABOUT MAKING MY MOTHER PROUD"

Leading Turkish Actress, Hazal Kaya, the star of 'Adini Feriha Koydum' (Feriha) series, which was shown in India, and is beginning its Season II on 16 November, said that she is so excited about attending the festival. Pointing out that Feriha was shown in Turkey five years ago, Kaya said, "Getting this interest in India for Feriha is so exciting for us. Actually, Turkish series are shown in many countries. But seeing the result of this in India is a different happiness for me. My mother grew up watching Indian movies. That’s why I am so happy to make her proud. Incidentally, I was not supposed to die in the series, but there was some dispute between the channel and the producer, and the series, along with my character, was abruptly terminated."

 "SEEING MYSELF DUBBED IN HINDI, I GOT SO EXCITED"

Highlighting that art is universal, the star of 'Little Lord', Sarp Levendoglu, said, "Being together with the art that reaches everyone in the same way is making me so happy.  First time I saw myself dubbed in Hindi, I got so excited.

"ART IS WHAT BRINGS US TOGETHER"

Highlighting the importance of art in people's life, the star of the popular TV series, Fatmagul, Kaan Tasaner said, “Art is what brings us together. It is more important than the language we speak. Thanks to all of you who wants to see us here.”

(Turkey Consul General of Mumbai - H.E. Mr. Erdal Sabri Ergen, Leading Actor from the hit Turkish drama series, Fatmagul,  Mr. Kaan Taşaner, Leading Turkish Actress from the hit drama series, Feriha - Ms. Hazal Kaya, Spokesperson of the Delegation, Head/President of the Film and TV Producers Professional Organisation, TESIYAP -  Mr. Birol Güven and Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mr. Huseyin Yayman)

Turkey-India Entertainment Forum (TV & Film)

An engaging Turkey-India Entertainment Forum (TV and Film) was held on Wednesday, October 26, 2016, following the press meet the previous day. This session was co-chaired by Festival Director, Anupama Chopra, and the President of TESİYAP (Television & Cinema Producers Professional Organisation of Turkey), Mr Birol Güven. The primary objective of the Industry Forum was to forge new relationships between the Film and TV industries of India and Turkey that will pave the way for collaborative productions, to build the legal foundation for co-production agreement and to contribute to the political, economic, artistic and cultural cooperation and solidarity between the two countries.

From the Turkish Delegation, special invitees included Turkish Ambassador in New Delhi Burak Akçapar, Turkey’s Vice-Minister of Culture & Tourism Hüseyin Yayman, Turkish Consul General in Mumbai Erdal Sabri Ergen, as well as prominent Turkish producers, Birol Güven, Ali Gündoğdu, Faruk Turğut, Şükrü Avşar, Ömer Atay, ATV and Kanal D Representatives, Mars Distribution CEO Ferhat Aslan; successful Turkish directors Reha Erdem, Çağan Irmak,  Ömer Faruk Sorak, Murat Şeker, Ümit Köreken, Faruk Hacıhafızoğlu participated in the panel discussion.

Representing the Indian film industry on the panel was Indian film-maker, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, of Vinod Chopra Films, who is married to Festival Director, Anupama Chopra.

The visit was organised by TESİYAP,  (Television and Film Producers Professional Association),  and supported by the Ministry of Culture & Tourism, General Directorate of Cinema and Turkish Consulate General in Mumbai.

About TESİYAP

TESİYAP is an important professional organisation of the Turkish production world. They protect the rights of its members: cinema and TV producers, collects and distributes copyright shares; works to organize events that promote and represent its members in national and international platforms. Its members are Turkey’s prominent film and TV producers, who export TV shows to 92 countries and whose productions reach more than 400 million viewers.

Delegates Participating in Industry Forum

Sr.No       Name of Dignitary           Designation

1 H. E. BURAK AKÇAPAR Ambassador of Turkey to India (NewDelhi)

2 Erdal Sabri Ergen Consul General of Turkey in Mumbai MINISTRY OF CULTURE & TOURISM

3 HÜSEYİN YAYMAN Vice-Minister of Culture and Tourism

4 ERKİN YILMAZ Director General for Cinema

5 SELÇUK YAVUZKANAT Head of Department in the General Directorate of Cinema TESİYAP DELEGATION

6 BİROL GÜVEN President of TESİYAP – Producer –Founder and President of MINT MOTION PICTURES – SPOKESPERSON OF THE DELEGATION

7 SEYİT ALİ GÜNDOĞDU Producer – Founder & Vice President SÜREÇ FILM TESIYAP

8 FARUK TURGÜT Founder / Producer Member of the Board GOLD FILM TESİYAP

9 ŞÜKRÜ AVŞAR Producer – Founder AVŞAR FILM

10 FERHAT ASLAN CEO Mars Distribution – MARS CINEMA GROUP

11 MUHAMMED ZİYAD VAROL ATV Licensing & Digital Manager –Acquisition & Sales, Platforms & Digital Operations

12 UTKU KARABAYRAKTAR KANAL D Representative

13 AHMET FURKAN GUNDOGDU TRT1 Programme Manager

14 ŞABAN ŞİKAR TRT1 Drama Manager

15 ALİ OMER ATAY Producer – Co founder ATLANTİK FILM

16 EMİN ACARTEKİN ACAR (Investor)

17 MURAT ŞEKER SUGARWORKZ Director / Producer / Founder

18 DR. BEKİR MURAT ÖGEL MINT MOTION PICTURES Finance Consultant

19 ALİN TAŞÇIYAN Film Critic President of Fipresci (International Federation of Film Critics)

20 ÖMER FARUK SORAK Director 8 Saniye / (8 SECONDS) BOCEK FILM

21 MEMNUNE İPEK SORAK Producer 8 SANİYE / 8 SECONDS BOCEK FILM

22 ÜMİT KÖREKEN Director MAVİ BİSİKLET / BLUE BICYCLE DRAMA FILM PRODUCTION

23 NURSEN ÇETIN KÖREKEN Producer MAVİ BİSKİLET / BLUE BICYCLE DRAMA FILM PRODUCTION

24 HAMİDE GÖZDE KURAL Director TOZ/DUST – TOZ FILM PRODUCTION

25 YAŞAR ARAK Scenarist

26 ALİ SARP LEVENDOĞLU ACTOR – TV Drama LITTLE LORD

27 BURHAN GÜN TESİYAP General Secretary Project Director

28 ÖZLEM AKBULUT GÜN TESİYAP Legal Consultant Coordinator

29 GAMZE PAKER MEKİK TESİYAP General Project Coordinator Producer

30 ÖKYÜ CANLI TESİYAP General Project Coordinator Assistant

31 DENİZ GÖK TESİYAP Project Assistant PR Assistant

32 ETEM CANER KARAÜÇ TESİYAP Video Production

33 FULYA İNANDIKLI TESİYAP PR Manager

34 SİNAN YILMAZ TESİYAP Photographer

Turkey at a glance

#The oldest known human settlement in the world is located in Catalhöyük, dating to 6500 B.C.

#The world’s first landscape painting was found on the wall of a Catalhöyük house, illustrating the volcanic eruption of nearby Hasandag.

#The first coins ever minted were produced at Sardis, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia, at the end of the seventh century B.C.

#Two of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World stood in Turkey — the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus and the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, Bodrum.

#Anatolia, the Asian portion of Turkey, is the birthplace of many historic figures and legends, such as the poet Homer, King Midas, Herodotus (the father of history) and St. Paul the Apostle.

#Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, or Kapalı Çarşı, dates to 1455, and was established shortly after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople. It has 61 streets, lined by more than 3,000 shops, and currently occupies nearly 333,000 square feet.

#There are 13 spots in Turkey inscribed on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites, and a whopping 62 on the tentative list. They range from a Mesolithic temple (Göbekli Tepe) to a Biblical city (Ephesus) to a World War One battlefield (Gallipoli).

#Turkey is the sixth most-visited tourist destination in the world.

#Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Winter Sleep won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014. Turkey makes about 100 films per year and is one of the few countries where domestic films earn more at the box office than Hollywood releases.

A word about the women behind who mediated the Turkey-Indian media interaction

Roma Pereira Talwar is their mother-figure. Roma does no justice to her ‘sword’ (married) surname, but a lot of justice to her illustrious father, Roger C. B. Pereira, a communications and public relations veteran himself. MFF has tested her mettle twice in a row. Last year, working for the festival proper, she was battling dengue during the period, yet performing whatever duties she could, from the hospital bed. This time, her mother is seriously ill, but she showed true grit in doing her duties as retained.

Her retinue includes Jayna and Pooja, always up to the task, and Elfin Fernand, a woman with a name as sonorous as her father, Frank Fernand’s musical notes (he worked with composer duo Kalyanji-Anandji, and produced a Hindi film too, Priya). Like a true friend, Elfin, who has been an air-hostess and, briefly, a PR executive, was by Roma’s side.

Roma and Roger’s company is called Turning Point.

I wish her efforts prove to be a turning point for the Turkey’s film and TV ambitions, which are already soaring

American Horizon on the Indian Kshitij, a month away from release

Rare indeed. A Mumbai-based film professional named Navroz Prasla (no, not the Parsee or Irani Navroz, but a Khoja community member) moves to Houston, USA  and sets up a media and event company, gets interested in a Marathi story, and produces an all Marathi cast and crew film called Kshitij (A Horizon), the only non-Maharashtrian being Oscar-winning Sound Designer, Resul Pookutty.

The film is now complete, and the PR agency co-ordinated a media-attended cocktail-dinner last week, exactly six weeks before its release, on 09 December. Most of the cast and crew attended. A trailer (made by Ramesh Auti) was screened, a song, choreographed by Sagar Mhadolkar, performed live by young boys and girls (the subject is education in rural India). The song is written by Guru Thakur, and Shailendra Barve has given the music. Vaishnavi Tangde led the child troupe.

At the event, there was plenty of media action. Prasla was delighted to share his ambition with the gathering, and debutant writer-director Manouj Kadaamh (Pune-based) mentioned how his long-standing desire to work with Resul was now fulfilled. Khsitij, he elaborated, is a “symbol of hope, as the dawn of a better tomorrow”. The film is produced under the banner of Media Films Craft.

Media Films Craft Inc. represents a unique fusion of American and Indian film cultures. They are not an art house company. They say they respect good story telling, but their aim is to make movies that are slightly off kilter, with a certain edge. Of course, they want to make you laugh, bring tears to your eyes, get your heart pumping--but they also want you to think, to create amazing images that entertain, communicate, influence and shapes people’s views

Media Films Craft is a Houston-based production company focused on developing and producing independent feature films, and was established in 2008.

Visionary businessman, erstwhile photographer, and innovative impresario, Navroz Prasla dons many hats. Armed with several years of experience in the industry as production manager, photographer, and in every capacity that enchants on the big screen, he recognised that Bollywood has universal appeal. He moved to Houston, Texas, and sought to follow his dreams in the land of promised opportunities. In 2004, he successfully helmed and promoted the US national performance tour of Bollywood film-star and comedian, Johnny Lever.

Kshitij, a Marathi language movie, was shot on location in Maharashtra. The film tells the story of a 12 –year-old girl’s struggle to continue her education in the face of severe poverty and adversity. Prasla already has another film taking shape, which is tentatively named Valentine’s Day. He has his ambitious sights set on collaborative ventures with Hollywood, for him the holy grail of movie making.

Noteworthy is it that Prasla has distinguished himself as a force to be reckoned with in the business echelons. He is also the Founder/CEO of Mottus, a Houston-based video equipment manufacturer that puts forth high quality, affordable, durable, studio and location-ready gear and accessories, “..camera sliders and gliders,” detailed Kadaamh.

Prasla also promotes a dance academy, with Sagar as his step-master. Sagar Mhadolkar, a native of Karnataka, began studying dance styles as a teenager. Later, he assisted the ace choreographer, Sanjay Pradhan (Lolly Pop), and Pappu-Malu (Devdas). He has performed over 150 shows all over world. Called Today Dance Academy, it has over 1000 students and 8 studios in Mumbai. Courses are held here in many styles, from Modern (Ballet, Jazz, Contemporary, Hip Hop, Salsa, Ballroom, Belly Dancing, Bollywood, Freestyle & more) to Classical (Bharatanatyam & Kathak).

Based on a story by Rayban Davage, the film stars Manoj Joshi, Sanjay Mone, Vidyadhar Joshi, Upendra Limaye, Kanchan Jadhav and Akanksha Pingale. It is cinematographed by Yogesh Rajguru and edited by Niraj Voralia. Kshitij, shot in Ahmednagar district, is co-produced by Karishma Mhadolkar, who supervised the entire production in India.

Among the attendees was veteran Hindi film writer and Urdu poet, Jalees Sherwani. Jaleesbhai, President of the Film Writers’ Association for six years and yet a teetotaller, is a walking-talking contradiction. He was keen on getting a cuppa, even at 9 pm, but his companion, one Mr. Dubey, could not organise one. This humble fan of his tried to prevail upon him to compile and publish his ghazals and nazms, some of which he posts on Facebook, off and on. No volume has been collated so far. He agreed to give the task the due attention it has deserved for decades. Ever communicative, he seemed a tad sad, and it appeared that after losing his mother, his last anchor to native Aligarh, he has just lost all desire to visit the city, though his four brothers still live there.

At first look, Kshitij looks a social awareness story, with conventional aspirations and familiar obstacles, perhaps in a new ‘bottle’ (package). But let’s wait and watch. The Horizon is not too far away.

Siraj Syed reviews Doctor Strange: Surgery and sorcery go hand in hand

Comics can be victims of overkill, especially when they traverse the distance from page to screen. Casting might be (mis)guided by name and fame, when suitability is of greater import. Marvel’s Doctor Strange, with part Disney talent and full distribution channels in tow, is ridden with both pitfalls. It’s a marvel then that the film manages to serve above par, enjoyable fare, for which credit largely goes to the mind-boggling special effects and CGI, and a few good performances (no, not Bernard Cumberbatch, though his fans might find this lack of approval outrageous).

In Kathmandu, Nepal, the sorcerer Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelson) and his zealot gang enter the secret compound called Kamar-Taj (you would never have guessed the name from the pronunciation; Taj...really?) and murder its librarian, keeper of ancient and mystical texts. They tear and steal pages describing a ritual, from a book belonging to the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton), a sorcerer who has lived for an unknown time and taught them all at Kamar-Taj, including Kaecilius (you would never...), the ways of the mystic arts. The Ancient One pursues the traitors, but Kaecilius escapes with the pages.

Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), an acclaimed neurosurgeon, loses the use of his hands in a near-fatal car accident. His medical colleague and former lover, Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams), tries to help him move on, but Strange, instead, wants to heal his injuries, at any cost. After months trying experimental surgeries on his hands and using-up all his resources, Strange seeks out Jonathan Pangborn (Benjamin Bratt), a paraplegic who, mysteriously, was able to walk again, after treatment at his own hospital was unsuccessful. Pangborn directs Strange to Kamar-Taj, in Kathmandu.

Strange heads for the mountain city, but nobody knows about Kamar-Taj there. During his search, he is attacked by thugs, who want to steal his watch, a gift from Christine, that is very dear to him. He tries to fight them off, but is over-powered, when another sorcerer, Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), comes to his rescue. Mordo takes him to The Ancient One, who shows Strange her power, revealing the astral plane and other dimensions, such as the Mirror Dimension. Strange begs her to teach him, and she eventually agrees despite his arrogance, which reminds her of Kaecilius.

Strange begins his tutelage under the Ancient One and Mordo, and learns from the ancient books in the library, which is now protected by Master Wong. Strange learns that Earth is protected from other dimensions by a spell formed from three buildings, called Sanctums, located strategically in New York City, London, and Hong Kong. The task of the sorcerers is to protect the Sanctums, though Pangborn chose to forego this responsibility, in favour of channelling mystical energy into getting walking again. Strange will have to do the same, to regain use of his hands.

Story by Jon Spaihts (The Darkest Hour, Prometheus) and Scott Derrickson is turned into a screenplay by            Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill (Scott’s ‘Sinister’ guy). Cargill’s been a waiter, a video store clerk, a travel agent, a camp counsellor, an airline reservation agent, a sandwich artist, a day care provider, a voice-actor and, a free-lance writer and film critic. Cargill began his career with Ain’t it Cool News, under the pseudonym Massawyrm (you have to by him beer to find out the origin of this enchanting moniker), writing there for over a decade, subsequently becoming a staff writer for film.com, hollywood.com and co-founding the animated movie review site, Spill.com.

They begin with a time agnostic scene in a kind of ancient temple, get into a barrage of chases and fights laden with mirror effects across modern-day America/Europe, with a plethora of breathtaking  ‘folding’ visuals, take us to a life and death operation, stay in present day real time for a few more scenes, insert a slick, albeit ghastly car accident, dwell on that hospital location a few more scenes, with an egotistical surgeon, his black colleague and the woman who is in unrequited love with him. All these goings-on are very much the stuff that TV series are made of, minus the super-natural. But hold your horses. Episode 1 is just the prelude (should be ‘prequel’, shouldn’t it?; no, a prequel might be in the pipeline as a whole film; you never know).

Easy does it. Start with some light rings and sparklers. Then get into 3D ‘forged’ weapons, followed by a magic cape (Superman, are you reporting it stolen?). From more dimensions than we knew, move on to astral planes and more universes than one (multiverses; and no, that doesn’t mean long poems). Little or no back stories find their way into the scenario.

Director Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Sinister, Deliver Us from Evil) asserted in media interviews that he did not want any stereo-typing in his film, and yet look at what he formulates: an American is mugged in Kathmandu, the sympathetic doctor and the trusting student are black, the man who has an inscrutable face and never laughs or smiles is Chinese (the character is depicted as Strange's Asian, "tea-making manservant" in the comics, a racial stereotype that Derrickson “did not want”), the three sanctums are located in New York, London and HongKong, the main villain is a James Bond baddie. Some slices of humour are tasty, others lost in the mumbling. Great Scott! Derrickson has cast Tilda Swinton as an Androgynous, ancient, Celtic Sorcerer and configured her like a Buddhist monk. He wrote the part specifically for the actress—the character was a Tibetan man in the comic. How good a move is that?

Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch (Black Mass, The Imitation Game, The Hobbit, August: Osage County, Star Trek into Darkness, 12 Years a Slave) has oodles and oodles of talent and, if he’s spoken his own lines in this film, has already mastered the ’merk’n accent. He’s just out of sorts, once he gets to Kathmandu. Okay, so he spent a year teaching English at a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Darjeeling, India, during an education break. So? Here’s a good example of how an unusually structured face and awkwardly waving arms come in the way of credibility.

Cumberbatch also ‘portrays’, the trans-universal villainous entity, Dormammu, though you’ll have to look carefully to catch the similarity. The actor himself suggested that he take on the role to Derrickson, feeling that having the character be a "horrific" reflection of Strange would work better than just "being a big ghoulish monster". To create the character, Cumberbatch provided motion-capture reference for the visual effects team, and his voice was blended with that of another (uncredited) British actor, whom Derrickson described as having "a very deep voice". (Don’t all villains have gravelly, double bassy voices? So who is our half door-keeper uncle, Dormammu ? Your guess is as good as mine).

Chiwetel Ejiofor (Dirty Pretty Things, Serenity, 12 Years a Slave) is quietly intense, in preparation for Part II. Rachel McAdams (Sherlock Holmes, A Most wanted Man, Southpaw) scores high on the emotion quotient, but is lost when the proceedings around her become para-normal. Benedict Wong (Dirty Pretty Things, Johnny English Reborn, The Martian) has maybe three good moments that make his role meaningful, and what’s wong with that? Michael Stuhlbarg (Men in Black, Pawn Sacrifice, Blue Jasmine, Trumbo) plays Strange’s professional rival and Benjamin Bratt is cast Jonathan Pangborn, the paraplegic.

Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale, Clash of the Titans, The Three Musketeers, The Hunt) comes with a canvas face make-up that took 2 ½ hours to apply, and his eyes are as sinister as ever. Tilda (Katherine Matilda) Swinton (the Curious case of Benjamin Button, The Grand Budapest Hotel, A Bigger Splash) turns 55 tomorrow. How apt! Only one so adept at her craft would have carried the transcendental philosophy spouting, and, alternately, multi-dimensional sparring with aplomb.

Music is by Michael Giacchino, cinematography Ben Davis (Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Age of Ultron; using an Arri Alexa 65 camera) and editing by Wyatt Smith and Sabrina Plisco. Davis does a splendid job, and the moments when the background is hazy or laced with dull colours are probably a post-production issue. Similarly, you can’t blame Smith and Plisco for the repetitive nature of the clashes and moves, if that is what the d/ire/octor ordered. Mercifully, one sanctum battle is kept to a fleeting minimum, otherwise the 115 minutes would have felt much longer. I know that the film is about absence of time and temporal freezing, but when you start looking at your watch instead of the IMAX screen, time assumes  essence.

Marvel addicts will hail the latest batch of superheroes and dupervillains. Such targeted movies are made with demographics and psychographics in mind, as much as the possibilities unravelled by state-of-the-art computer effects. Those with lesser enthusiasm might find the narrative occasionally cumber-some

Statutory warning: Do not leave the auditorium till the credit titles are Thor oughly over.

Rating: ***

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt-U_t2pUHI

Doctor’s Strange back-story

Over 50 years after Steve Ditko created the character, almost forty years after the television film, Dr. Strange, and ten years after its animated avatar, Doctor Strange: The Sorcerer Supreme, this is the first, full-fledged film version, in 3D. A film based on the Marvel Comics character Doctor Strange was initially listed as being in pre-production in 1986. By 1989, Alex Cox had co-written a script with Stan Lee. The script had the character travelling to the Fourth Dimension, before facing the villain, Dormammu, on Easter Island. A film using this script was almost made by Regency, but the company's films were distributed by Warner Bros. at the time, who was in a dispute with Marvel over merchandising.

By 1992, Wes Craven had been retained to write and direct Doctor Strange for release in 1994-95. In 1995, David S. Goyer had completed a script for the film. By 1997, Columbia Pictures had purchased the film rights and Jeff Welch was working on a new screenplay. By 2000, Columbia dropped Doctor Strange. By June 2001, Dimension Films acquired the film rights. However, by August 2001, Miramax Films acquired the film rights from Dimension. In 2005, Paramount Pictures acquired Doctor Strange from Miramax, as part of Marvel Studios' attempt to independently produce their own films. At the time, the film was projected to have a budget of no more than $165 million.

In 2009, Marvel hired writers to help come up with creative ways to launch its lesser-known properties, including Doctor Strange. In 2010, Marvel Studios hired Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer to write Doctor Strange. While promoting Transformers: Dark of the Moon, in 2011, actor Patrick Dempsey indicated he was lobbying to play the title character. By March 2014, the directors Marvel was considering were believed to be Andrews, Levine, and Scott Derrickson. In June 2014, Derrickson was chosen to direct the film. Shooting began in Nepal on November 4, 2015, under the working title Checkmate. Strange are the ways of Hollywood.

Steve Ditko

In 1955 Ditko joined Atlas Comics, the company that would metamorphose into what is Marvel today. Ditko drew for 17 Atlas titles, including Two-Gun Western – his very first collaboration with Stan Lee. Lee had an idea for a new superhero, initially called Spiderman, and had asked Jack Kirby to sketch the accompanying art. But Lee found Kirby’s work too straight, too heroic for this character, so he recruited Ditko instead.

Spider-Man first appeared in Amazing Fantasy no. 15 (August 1962). Around the same time, Ditko developed a character, Doctor Strange, published in Marvel’s Strange Tales title. Strange was a sorcerer who used magic to travel into other dimensions of existence. An arrogant Manhattan surgeon, whose delicate hands were injured in a car crash, Strange travelled the world in search of a cure, and, instead, discovered the unknown.

Ditko drew his inspiration for Strange from classic films, like The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari (1920), and souvenir objects he found in Greenwich Village junk shops.

His politics also began to seep into his work, with stories that saw ‘Spiderman’ Peter Parker scoff at protesting students, and demand more money from monstrous newspaper editor J. Jonah Jameson (a caricature of Stan Lee, who was his editor at Atlas).

He retired from freelance work in 1998, though he’s kept publishing occasional solo work into his 80s. In 2007, Jonathan Ross made a documentary, In Search of Steve Ditko. Like his friend/foe Stan Lee, Ditko has had a long life, turning 89 in two days ago.

IFFI: 1,000 entries from 100 countries

Ten days to go for the commencement of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), and there is no confirmation for media accreditation as yet. This being the 47th IFFI and my 47th year in film journalism, I am sure the concern is unfounded, though. Also being missed is the customary press conference, which is held well before the event. Meanwhile, here are some of the major attractions expected in Panaji, Goa, during November 20-28.

*A staggering 1,000 films will be screened, from around 100 countries. Great news, if film-buffs can chop themselves into 1,000 pieces and be omni-present, at all 1,000 shows.

*The Festival authorities have announced that they are proud 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 International Council for Film, Television and Audio-visual Communication (ICFT)-UNESCO, will launch the ICFT-Gandhi Award competitive section this year, which will feature films that promote peace and non-violence. The film that best reflects the Gandhi ideals of peace, tolerance and non-violence, will be awarded a prestigious Gandhi Medal and Certificate.

India’s entry in this section is nine times national award winning director T.S. Nagabharana’s Kannada language musical-drama-historical venture, Allama. The film is about the 12th century meta-physician and poet, Yogi Allama (pronounced All’ma and not Allama; not to be confused with the Urdu-Arabic word for scholar, usually associated with poet Iqbal, though the term is relevant), a son of a temple dancer, who embarks on a quest for knowledge and answers, to his four core sentiments and quests, yearning, and obsession, failures and self-realisation.

When he evolves and becomes ‘Prabhu’, a master of monotheistic and non-dualistic philosopher, he begins to question many core values in his ideal world where he can foresee violence and advices people to find solace and departs on his final journey to become one with nature and a true spirit. Dhananjaya plays Allama Prabhu, from the time he was a teenager till he was much older. The film also stars Meghana Raj and Sanchari Vijay.

Other films that will vie for the honour are A Real Vermeer, Beluga, Cold of Kalandar, Exiled, Harmonia, The Apology and The Family: Dementia.

Allama Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_Ue8P_to9k

I, Daniel Blake, Salesman & 10 other Cannes award-winners at IFFI Goa 2016

A dozen Cannesy films are found in the selection for the 46^th International Film Festival of Goa, 2016. Six months after Cannes and one month after the Mumbai Film Festival, those Indians who missed them there have another chance to make good their losses. I have seen only one of the pretty dozen, and though it was a treat for the eyes and ears, it was still anything but a pretty picture.

1. I, Daniel Blake (UK) (Crowd magnet at the Mumbai Film Festival last month)

Winner of the Palm d’Or (Golden Palm) and the Palm DogManitarian award

Directed by Ken Loach, the film won the Palm d’Or, the top prize awarded at Cannes. It was the second Palm d’Or for Loach who won it for The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006). I, Daniel Blake revolves around the life of a middle aged carpenter and a single mother, who find themselves stuck in similar situations. This film will be screened in the Masterstrokes category at IFFI.

2. It’s Only the End of the World (Canada)

Winner of the Grand Prix and the Ecumenical Jury Prize

Director Xavier Dolan was just 25 when he stunned the world with Mommy (2014, Jury Prize at Cannes). His latest film is about Louis, a terminally ill writer who returns home after a long absence, only to bring some unpleasant news to his family. This film too will be screened in the Masterstrokes category at IFFI.

3.  Graduation (Romania) (another MFF blockbuster)

Winner of Best Director award

After he made it big on the world stage with 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (which was the opening film at IFFI in 2007; recall chatting with the director then), Romanian film maker Cristian Mungiu has established himself as a director to be watched. Graduation revolves around the life of a doctor and the challenges he has to face as a parent. This film, again, will be a part of the Masterstrokes category at IFFI.

4. The Salesman (Iran) (MFF superhit carry-over)

Winner of the Best Actor and Best Screenplay award

Asghar Farhadi--the name itself is good enough to send world cinema lovers in a tizzy. Academy Award winner for A Separation (2011), Farhadi’s latest, The Salesman, is an Iranian-French film that he has directed and scripted. The story is a about a couple who play the lead roles in the local version of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. The male lead was played by Shahab Hosseini, for which he won the Best Actor, and Farhadi took the honours for Best Screenplay. The film is Iran’s entry at the 2017 Oscars.

5. Ma’ Rosa (Philippines)

Winner of the Best Actress award

This film from the nation of countless islands is directed by Brilliante Mendoza, who has made award-winning films like Summer Heat (2006) and Thy Womb (2012). Shot with portable, inexpensive digital equipment, on location in the Philippines’ capital Manila’s poorest neighbourhoods, the film revolves around the life of Rosa, portrayed by Jacklyn Jose. Ma’ Rosa is another Masterstroke. It is the official submission of the Philippines for the ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ category of the 89th Academy Awards, in 2017.

6.  American Honey (USA)

Winner of the Prix du Jury (Jury Prize)

American Honey is a British-American, directed by Andrea Arnold who has films like Red Road (2006) and the much appreciated Fish Tank (2009) to his name. The film is about the adventures of a teenage girl, who joins a travelling magazine sales crew, and stars Sasha Lane and Shia LaBeouf. This movie will be screened in the Cinema of the World category at IFFI.

7. The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki (Finland)

Winner of the ‘Un Certain Regard’ Award

This Finnish film, directed by Juho Kuosmanen, is a real life story about a famous Finnish boxer, Olli Mäki, who was in contention for the 1962 World Featherweight title. Shot in Black and White, the film is also the official submission of Finland for the ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ category of the 89th Academy Awards.

8. The Stopover (France)

Winner of the Un Certain Regard for Best Screenplay Award

The Stopover is a French film directed by sisters Delphine and Muriel Coulin. The story revolves around two young French soldiers who go to Cyprus on a three-day leave. This film will be screened in the Cinema of the World Category at IFFI.

9.  Wolf and Sheep (Afghanistan)

Winner of the Art Cinema Award

Wolf and Sheep is directed by Shahrbanoo Sadat. The film is about an anthropologist who observes isolated shepherd communities in Afghanistan, where wolves and sheep share equal importance. The film will compete for the Centenary Award: Best Debut Feature category at IFFI.

10.  The Neon Demon (Denmark) (MFF hot fare that is a neon-starter).

Winner of the Cannes Soundtrack Award

The Neon Demon is a psychological horror film, starring Elle Fanning, Christina Hendricks, and Keanu Reeves, and is directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, who won the Best Director at Cannes for Drive (2011). It is about Jesse, an aspiring model, who moves to Los Angeles to pursue her dream. The music is composed by Cliff Martinez, and this Demon will be screened in the Masterstrokes (?) category at IFFI.

11. The Student (Russia)

Winner of the François Chalais Award

The Student is a Russian film directed by Kirill Serebrennikov. This film is based on a high school student who believes that the world has been lost to evil. Variety called it “a film that never stops to think; it thinks (and speaks, and shouts) while prodigiously on the move.” The film will feature in the International Competition at IFFI.

12. Tramontane (Lebanon)

Winner of the Grand Golden Rail Award

Tramontane is directed by Vatche Boulghorijan, who makes his debut with this feature. The story revolves around Rabih, a young blind man who is in search of his true identity. This film will be a part of the Centenary Award: Best Debut Feature category at IFFI.

Siraj Syed reviews Billy Lynn’s Long Half-Time Walk by Ang Lee

>“Americans are children, who must go somewhere else to grow up, and sometimes die.”

> “How does anyone ever know anything—the past is a fog that breathes out ghost after ghost, the present a freeway thunder run at 90 mph, which makes the future the ultimate black hole of futile speculation.”

>“It is sort of weird, being honored for the worst day of your life.”

Trust Ang Lee to map all three ‘worlds’ through the psyche of a first world (read American) soldier, an unpleasant past, a dreamy world of decoration, desert and death, and the option of bailing out, having done his bit fantastically well. While taking a prismatic view, he went on to landscape the tale on three planes: personal, familial and national. Even though there is a sense of déjà vu in the Iraq war setting and the American obsession with hero-worship, the film deserves a recce, if not a second encounter.

Nineteen-year-old private Billy Lynn along with his fellow Specialist soldiers in Bravo Squad, Iraq, becomes a hero, after a harrowing fire-fight, in which he valiantly fights off the enemy, while trying to save the life of a fellow Bravoman. The incident is filmed by an embedded newsperson. The footage is shown back home, in Texas, heralding a new hero. Lynn and the Bravos are brought home, for a victory tour.

Through flashbacks, culminating at the spectacular half-time show of the Thanksgiving Day football game, what really happened to the squad is revealed—the squad barely survived and their brother-in-arms died, as did one attacker, whose neck was slit by Lynn. He is arrogantly reminded of the Alamo and the Americans winning over the Mexicans, by a patronising, gold-digging Texan. Not true, retorts Lynn, “The Mexicans massacred the Texans.”

He is then made to appreciate that the battle he fought is not his property anymore, and that the film rights will bring in only $5,500 apiece. Earlier, they were offered $100,000/person, when Hillary Swank first evinced interest in reprising Lynn’s role. They have a manager and a film agent, are warmly applauded for their service and also callously exploited, fodder for a crackers and fire-works spectacle that collapses the difference between patriotic sentiment and crass commercialism.

There are three weighty reasons for Lynn to stay home and not head back to the battle-ground: the trauma his family is going through, the cheer leader/social-worker girl to whom he lost his virginity the day before, and his disillusionment with civilians, who aim to first further their design through the army and ten do not hesitate to milk their achievements. Not many 19 year-olds would have to go through this trilemma.

Booksite Amazon sums up Ben Fountain’s debut novel, a National Book Award finalist in 2012. “From the, PEN/Hemingway Award-winning author of the critically acclaimed short story collection, Brief Encounters with Che Guevara, comes Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (‘The Catch-22 of the Iraq War’ —Karl Marlantes).”

A Catch-22 (would you rather remain brave and normal, and fight at the front, or would you buckle under trauma, and seek exception from combat duty, under mental illness grounds?) it is, with shades of Hurt Locker and American Sniper. Jean-Christophe Castelli, long-term associate of Lee and executive producer of Life of Pi, gets to divide 22/7 here, with so many characters populating the sets/locales and only 110 minutes to play with. It’s an almost contemporary novel that he has adapted, and except for some back story, it is said that a lot of the chapters do make it to screen. Profundities, alternating with sardonic smiles, mark the dialogue right through, and we’ll go with Fountain’s wordsmanship. Some picks are tagged below.

Interestingly, the very man in Brave Squad who talks about omnipresent Krishna (“not in my part of Texas,” insists Billy) and has a Ganesha idol around, dies a brutal death. The others are a random bunch of black/Hispanic/Filipino and more privates. The movie agent is black. Billy’s girl asks him whether he is a Christian. In Iraq, they are, obviously, fighting Muslims.

While the football interlude becomes the centrepiece, the game itself is of less important, compared to the games that the moneybags are playing off-field. Pivoted around the gun (and later knife) battle, the ammunition engagement scenes fail to ignite any real feelings. Action is competently classy, but the communication is drowned in the noise, and you keep wondering what is going on, and why for so long. Likewise, the recurring run-ins with the security and ground staff at the stadium drag into tedium.

Ang Lee (Taiwanese; Eat Drink Man Woman, Sense and Sensibility, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain, Life of Pi) gave us a below expectations Life of Pi. It’s almost the same here, perhaps marginally improved. His fascination for the printed word and his fixation with flashback technique is apparent. Some of the reverse angle cuts, the present to past to present swivel flash-backs, the subtle sex scene that begins with a trucking shot showing the cheerleader’s plastic pom left on a table and moves into the bedroom, and the almost silent life and death struggle between Billy and the Taliban adversary, culminating a slow spread of blood below are vintage Lee.

His indictment of political and material demons, who will resort to war and every other unscrupulous means in pursuit of filthy lucre, does away with. The many references to songs of a decade ago and the clever picturisation of scenes featuring Destiny’s Child (Black Texan singer-actress Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter was then part of the four-girl R&B group) is ...well, clever. Casting is commendable. Maybe the film ‘Walks’ in a decade too late, and is unable to distance itself very much from the spate of ‘Valiant American soldiers who fought in the Iraqi war, and their traumatic memoirs’ one point of view genre that is, hopefully, on its last legs now. Ang Lee is capable of more. Much more.

Joe Alwyn was cast in the main role just two days after he left his drama school, London's Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. He has an amazingly vulnerable baby-face that carries its war-hardened body seamlessly. And those eyes! Kirsten Stewart (Panic Room, Twilight Saga, Snow-White and the Huntsman, Clouds of Sils Maria, Certain Women) as his sister tugs at your heart strings in a role length that keeps her part curiously interesting. Also interesting is the choice of Vin Diesel (turning 50; Saving Private Ryan, Fast And Furious, The Last Witch-Hunter) as the man who mouths Hindu philosophy, the Bravo elder statesman who gets fatally hit. Diesel is not the killing machine here; on the contrary, he gets killed. Using a glance that goes askew to good advantage, comic star Steve Martin (Father of the Bride, The Pink Panther, It’s Complicated) as the football team-owner reminds you that he is versatile, not cramped by style.

Makenzie Leigh (first major film role) as the cheerleader has a waist to covet and legs to match, Chris Tucker (Rush Hour, The Fifth Element, Jackie Brown) walks through a stereo-typical role which has been intentionally so delineated and Garrett Hedlund (Tron: Legacy, Unbroken, Pan) fits in the Bravo Squad chief like a glove.

The clarity of the digital cinematography by John Toll allows us to read the layers of facial muscles in a rarely seen before insight. It was too much to expect 120 frames per second detailing of image data in the NFDC auditorium in Worli, Mumbai, and, as I read a little after the show, only a handful of cinemas across the globe are technically equipped to project at that speed. So, don’t even think about it.

See the film. Treat it like a long, brisk, eventful walk across the societal-cultural-angst ridden landscape of America, 2004. Only walk, don’t run.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEG2uamc324

Rating: ***

Excerpt from the New York Times review, published yesterday

“The movie is being released in two forms: a 3-D, super-high-definition version with an accelerated frame rate in a couple of theaters and a more conventional version everywhere else. The souped-up edition, which was screened at the New York Film Festival, is a fascinating failed experiment, an attempt to bring Billy’s drama to life with unprecedented immediacy that falls into an uncanny valley between cinema and virtual reality. The images are, somewhat paradoxically, so hyper-real that their artificiality becomes more pronounced; you feel as if you’re sitting uncomfortably close to the costumed holograms of famous actors.”

(Only six theatres in the world are equipped to screen such high resolution and frame rate, of which two are in the USA: one in New York City's AMC Lincoln Square, where the film had its world première, and the other in Los Angeles' The ArcLight Hollywood).

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk quotes/Dialogue from the book/film

“Somewhere along the way America became a giant mall, with a country attached.”

> “If you could figure out how to live with family, then you'd gone a long way toward finding your peace.”

> “Okay, so maybe they aren't the greatest generation by anyone's standard, but they are surely the best of the bottom third percentile of their own somewhat muddled and suspect generation.”

>“It is sort of weird being honored for the worst day of your life.”

> “There was no such thing as perfection in this world, only moments of such extreme transparency that you forgot yourself, a holy mercy if there ever was one.”

 >“Everybody supports the troops," Dime woofs, "support the troops, support the troops, hell yeah we're so fucking PROUD of our troops, but when it comes to actual money? Like somebody might have to come out of pocket for the troops? Then all the sudden we're on everybody's tight-ass budget. Talk is cheap, I got that, but gimme a break. Talk is cheap but money screams, this is our country, guys. And I fear for it. I think we should all fear for it.”

>“He'd say "I love you" to every man in the squad before rolling out, say it straight, with no joking or smart-ass lilt and no warbly Christian smarm in it either, just that brisk declaration like he was tightening the seat belts around everyone's soul.”

>“What to call it - the spark of God? Survival instinct? The souped-up computer of an apex brain evolved from eons in the R&D of natural selection? You could practically see the neurons firing in the kid’s skull. His body was all spring and torque, a bundle of fast-twitch muscles that exuded faint floral whiffs of ripe pear. So much perfection in such a compact little person - Billy had to tackle him from time to time, wrestle him squealing to the ground just to get that little rascal in his hands, just your basic adorable thirty-month-old with big blue eyes clear as chlorine pools and Huggies poking out of his stretchy-waist jeans. So is this what they mean by the sanctity of life? A soft groan escaped Billy when he thought about that, the war revealed in this fresh and gruesome light. Oh. Ugh. Divine spark, image of God, suffer the little children and all that - there’s real power when words attach to actual things. Made him want to sit right down and weep, as powerful as that. He got it, yes he did, and when he came home for good he’d have to meditate on this, but for now it was best to compartmentalize, as they said, or even better not to mentalize at all.”

> “Even harder was describing his sense that Shroom’s death might have ruined him for anything else, because when he died? When I felt his soul pass through me? I loved him so much right then, I don’t think I can ever have that kind of love for anybody again. So what was the point of getting married, having kids, raising a family if you knew you couldn’t give them your very best love?”

>“He decides he wants both, more or less. He’d like to hang with Beyoncé in a nice way, get to know her by doing small pleasant things together like playing board games and going out for ice cream, or how about this, a three-week trial run in some tropical paradise where they can hang together in that nice way and possibly fall in love, and meanwhile f*** each other’s brains out in their spare time. He wants both, he wants the entire body-soul connect because anything less is just demeaning.”

>“[Norm said,] 'To all those who argue this war is a mistake, I'd like to point out that we've removed from power one of history's most ruthless and belligerent tyrants (Saddam Hussain). A man who cold-bloodedly murdered thousands of his own people. Who built palaces for his personal pleasure while schools decayed and his country's health care system collapsed. Who maintained one of the world's most expensive armies while he allowed his nation's infrastructure to crumble. Who channelled resources to his cronies and political allies, allowing them to siphon off much of the country's wealth for their own personal gain.”

> “Maybe the light's at the other end of the tunnel.”

>“It was the sixties, exactly, all we wanted to do was to smoke a lot of dope and ball a lot of chicks. Vietnam, excuse me? Why would I wanna go get my ass shot off in some stinking rice paddy just so Nixon can have his four more years? Screw that, and I wasn't the only one who felt that way. All the big war-mongers these days who took a pass on Vietnam, look, I'd be the last person on earth to start casting blame. Bush, Cheney, Rove, all those guys, they just did what everybody else was doing and I was right there with 'em, chicken as anybody. My problem now is how tough and gung-ho they are, all that bring it on crap, I mean, Jesus, show a little humility, people. They ought to be just as careful of your young lives as they were with their own.”

>Then she made a somewhat frantic speech about a website she found that listed how certain people had avoided Vietnam. Cheney, Four education deferments, then a hardship 3-A. Limbaugh,4-F thanks to a cyst on his ass. Pat Buchanan, 4-F. Newt Gingrich, grad school deferment. Karl Rove, did not serve. Bill O'Reilly, did not serve. John Ashcroft, did not serve. Bush, AWOL from the Air National Guard, with a check mark in the "do not volunteer" box as to service overseas.

>"You see where I'm going with this?'

"Well, yeah."

"I'm just saying, those people want a war so bad, they can fight it themselves. Billy Lynn's done his part.” 

Siraj Syed reviews Shut In: Stephen was a happy shut-in, until Tom had to butt-in

Walk-in, run-in, let-in, give-in, turn-in, move-in, sit-in...now comes shut-in. “A shut-in is a person who, due to physical, mental and/or emotional reasons, is not able to leave his or her home. These conditions can cause a person to feel lonely, isolated, sad and cut off from the rest of the world. Sometimes, they do not have family and friends available to visit and spend time with them. They often lack any kind of companionship.” Shut In, the movie, is a generic psychological thriller, about a relationship, but lacks craftsmanship, and is likely to score very low on viewership.

Naomi Watts stars as lonely Mary Portman, a child psychologist who conducts therapy sessions on the grounds of her isolated Maine, New England home. She never wants to be too far from her 18-year-old catatonic step-son, Stephen (Charlie Heaton), who was left paralysed after an auto mishap that killed his father. She’s obviously devoted to her work, and especially attentive to difficult patients, such as Tom (Jacob Tremblay), an almost deaf young orphan, who gets terribly violent and has even broken the arm of another kid. Against her wishes, Tom is sent to a foster home.

Mary is consulting a psychiatrist, Dr. Wilson (Oliver Platt), about the guilt pangs of having recommended disturbed teenager Stephen’s sending away to a special school, and the car accident that killed her husband and left him in this state occurring during that trip. She is also tiring with the routine of bathing, propping and feeding Stephen, who does not speak and whose only real activity is watching TV.

Tom suddenly turns up at Mary’s home, where he is found sitting in her car, having smashed the window glass and let himself in. He has apparently runs away from foster care, and Mary decides to put him up. Soon afterwards, he vanishes without a trace, triggering virtually non-stop news reports about a state-wide search for the boy, who is presumed dead. Is he really dead, or is he playing a horrific hide-and-seek game with her?

A 2012 Black List script, British writer Christina Hodson’s maiden effort was picked up by Lava Bear Films in November 2014. It is a French-Canadian co-production, scheduled to be released in February this year, by EuropaCorp. I am not surprised that it could make it to the screen only a full nine months later. Even then, it has the appearance of a premature baby. There is referencing galore, tropes and more, red herrings and unstable bearings, you name it.

Shut In begins in the most staid, uneventful fashion, takes it own time to get into the characters, then misleads you into the supernatural, subsequently uses a psychiatrist to rationalise Mary’s hallucinating, fearful dreams to sensationalise, and, finally, tries unsuccessfully to explain everything with a highly unnatural climax, using a testing level of suspension of disbelief to create its own logic.

Perhaps they were unable to steer away from the supernatural, their chosen path being so charted, and yet unable to make the film interestingly and convincingly scary and terrorising, without those crutches. Sometimes, realistic can be listless, and detail can be pointless.

Halfway into the film, Ah! Stephen King, you say, and the teenager’s name is a giveaway! Director Farren Blackburn, who is British, and has worked in TV (Hammer of the Gods), agreed, but with a slight qualification.

“I think there was no getting away from that, simply because it’s set in Maine, in the winter, and when I read it, it immediately felt quite Stephen King. There are elements, I would say, of Misery, as well as The Shining, and while they were obvious influences, I didn’t set out to replicate anything. Those are two of my favourite psychological thriller/horror films, and they probably seeped into my being via osmosis, watching those movies so many times, so there are subtle nods and hints toward those movies. But also, as I said, there is hopefully a Hitchcockian level of tension throughout Shut In that makes you hold your breath for 90 minutes. That was my intention.”

A dash of King can be seen. But almost nothing about The King, British master Alfred Hitchcock, unless the noise made by a raccoon in the dead of a freezing winter night giving the jitters to Mary is your idea of Hitchcock.

There are a few redeeming factors: the counselling sessions, the honesty of the lead characters and the sincerity of the performers, the ambience beautifully captured by the cinematographer Yves Bélanger. Eschewing the trodden path but using the same signposts is a contradiction that works against the narrative.

Naomi Watts (48, British roots; King Kong, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Insurgent, Allegiant) is easy and under-stated for the most part, which helps in keeping the screaming and shivering to a manageable level. Oliver Platt (X Men First Class, Chef, Kill the Messenger) is a Canadian with unconventional looks. He appears on Skype and seems to be treating his patient with earthy wisdom and kid gloves, perhaps standard psychiatric practice. From his last session till the climax, he is made to ham it out.

Charlie Heaton (22; As You Are, Rise of the Foot-soldier Part II, Urban & the Shed Crew) Netflix’s Stranger Things) gets to straddle both ends of the acting poles: inanimate and over-animated. Good job, within the constraints of the twist in the plot. A word about Jacob Tremblay (Canadian; Now 10, Smurfs 2, Room, Before I Wake): he’s a little boy with a big repertoire of expressions, all of them enunciated without a word. David Cubitt (Seventh Son, Stone Wall, Rehearsal) is cast as a divorcee wooing Mary, whose square features, a pugilist’s frame and marginally overbearing nature are probably used as decoys. He’s into his role. Crystal Balint (Canadian TV), Alex Braunstein (TV), Ellen David (Dominion, Iqaluit, Nine Lives), Clémentine Poidatz (35, French, TV) and Tim Post (Enemy, X-Men: Days of Future Past) are around to render support.

Shut In clocks in at all of 90 only minutes (probably 88 in India, with Watts’ displays of Watts’ anatomy clipped off), and such brevity of screen time calls for frugal usage of temporal resources. But then again, maybe we are seeing the best of what was shot!

This ‘mood flick’ remains Shut In for the better part, and when it does open-up a bit, the scene-ario is rather bleak, quite like the bleak winter setting of the story.

Rating: * ½

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqRdVOQ98k8

The Office

Five South Korean thrillers of various sub-genres were part of the Country Focus at IFFI  2016. They included two films that were shown at Cannes. Culled from latest releases, the selection has been titled Memoirs of Fear.

Now a household name across the world thanks to Gangnam Style, a K(orea)-Pop song that shook the world in 2012, Gangnam-gu, in Seoul, is actually a large district where wealthy residential areas sit alongside high-end art facilities and Korea’s busiest fashion streets.

The country has a population of 51.33 million (as of the 2013 census) and, is a free democracy, operating under the Presidential system. The Korean film industry is quite unique, in the sense that domestic admissions for Korean and foreign films are split almost 50-50, with a mandate that 40% of all films released have to be local productions. In the past 10 years, Korean films have raced past foreign films in box office revenue and ticket sales. In 2012 alone, domestic films earned $44 million, whereas foreign films brought in $35 million.

Alone, 2015, directed by Park Hong-Min, 91 min.

While preparing his documentary about an old town in Seoul, Soo-min accidentally films a crime scene, in which a woman is killed by a group of masked men. He runs away with his camera, but soon gets caught, and is smashed on the head with a hammer by the men. Not long after, he wakes up naked, but without a wound, in the alley, and believes that he had a nightmare. Every time he tries to escape from the alley, he is brought back to the same alley.

Alone is the second film from Park Hong-min (A Fish, 2011). Dealing with gentrification and modern masculinity, in a confused urban landscape. Park follows his lead actor with an eerie, gliding camera, and the result is infectious and unsettling.

Horror Stories III, 2016, directed by Kim Sun, Kim Gok, Min Kyu-dong and Baek Seung-Bin, 94 min.

This is the third outing for the franchise, based on three horror stories, each set in the past, present and future respectively. Dwelling into a bit of science fiction, the plot revolves around a girl who makes a near escape from Space War.

Producer, director, screenwriter Min Kyu-dong made an impressive debut as a co-director of Memento Mori (1999). Min’s second film All for Love (2005), revealed where his interests lie. All for Love had much more commercial sensibility than his debut film. It shows many couples and their love stories, and this style of filmmaking, resembling the popular Love Actually, brought him commercial success. Min’s third film, The Antique Bakery (2008), which was based on a well-known Japanese cartoon, was another showcase of the director’s wide-ranging interests, by deftly mixing up various subject matters that are difficult to deal with in a movie, such as homosexuality, childhood trauma, and a patriarchal family system. His 2011 film The Last Blossom, which was based on an original piece by a famous TV drama writer, introduced, just as in his previous works, several leading cast-members at once, to unfold its storyline. 2012 was a busy year for Min, as he released the enormously popular romantic comedy All About My Wife. He was also one of the directors on the second instalment on the omnibus Horror series, before helming the erotic, period drama-thriller, The Treacherous. 2016 saw him return for a third helping of Horror Stories.

Inside Men, 2015, directed by Woo Min-ho, 130 min.

Lee Kang-hee, an editor at an influential conservative newspaper, raises congressman Jang Pil-woo to the position of a leading candidate for President, using the power of the press. Behind this, there was his secret deal with the paper’s biggest sponsor. Ahn Sang-goo, a political henchman who supported Lee and Jang, gets his hand cut when he is caught pocketing the record of the sponsor’s slush fund. Woo Jang-hoon, an ambitious prosecutor, starts to investigate the relationship with Jang and the sponsor believing it is the only chance he can make it to the top. While getting down to the grass roots on the case, Woo meets Ahn, who has been deliberately planning his revenge. Now, the triangular conflict between one blind for power, one hell bent for vengeance and one eager for success starts.

Woo Min-ho is a director-screenwriter who released Man of Vendetta, a successful revenge thriller about a minister who goes searching for his kidnapped daughter. Woo followed that up in 2012 with the action-comedy-thriller The Spies, about a North Korean spy, stationed in Seoul, who has been making illegal money on the side, as he waits for orders from the North. When those finally arrive, he teams up with other agents. Spies did not work and was panned. Three years later, Woo came-up with his next film, the thriller, Inside Men, about corporate corruption, political fixing and media manipulation.

Office, 2015, directed by Hong Wan-Chan, 111 min.

To move up to a permanent job, intern Mirae’s been working hard for five months. One day, her gentle supervisor, Byung-guk, slaughters his entire family, and sneaks back to the office. While investigating, Detective Jong-hun senses that Byung-guk’s colleagues, unlike their testimonies, do not trust one another. What in the office really made Byung-guk go mad? Is he still in the building?

Office is the year’s biggest commercial surprises of 2015.

Hong Won-chan (director, script editor) entered the mainstream film industry as a scriptwriter, specialising in high-end thrillers. It all began with his  iconic debut, a genre-bending thriller, The Chaser (2008), which catapulted the lead pair to stardom, after attracting over five million viewers to theatres, and earning critical acclaim at home and abroad, including a selection at the Cannes Film Festival. Hong next worked on the stock market heist film The Scam, in 2009. The gritty revenge thriller The Yellow Sea (2010) followed. Another critical hit, the film was also invited to Cannes, and screened widely, around the world. One more revenge thriller followed for Hong in 2012, when he co-wrote Confession of Murder.

The Wailing, 2016, directed by Na Hong-jin, 156 min.

An old stranger appears in a peaceful rural village, but no one knows when or why. As mysterious rumours begin to spread about this man, the villagers drop dead one by one. They grotesquely kill each other, for inexplicable reasons. The village is swept by turmoil and the stranger is subjected to suspicion. . A policeman is drawn into the incident and is forced to solve the mystery in order to save his daughter. The Wailing featured in the Out of Competition section, at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.

Director, screenwriter Na Hong-jin scored box office success in Korea with The Chaser (2008). It was shown at the Cannes Film Festival and sold to about 40 countries. His last film, The Yellow Sea (2010), a movie about a Korean Chinese professional hit man, was funded by 20th Century Fox. Although The Yellow Sea was not as commercially successful in Korea as his first film, the film was invited to the Un Certain Regard section of the 64th Cannes International Film Festival, where it was recognised for its artistic achievement.

Siraj Syed’s IFFI 2016 diary, II, Andrzej Wajda’s lingering Afterimage

Six of Poland’s much raved and long-revered director Andrzej Wajda’s films were on display at IFFI 2016. In a fitting tribute to the international master, who died on 9 October this year, of pulmonary failure, his last film, Afterimage, was the inaugural film here. Afterimage was completed just before his death, and he had even made a draft of the trailer and sent it to his editor, before dying, at age 90. A team that included his producer, costume designer and editor were at IFFI to witness the screening and share memories of the making of the film. Although Afterimage is anti-Stalin and anti-socialism, it is seen as more of a historic chronicle about a severely handicapped artist than a commentary.

Besides, five other films, lauded all over the world, were here as a retrospective. They included the representative from the ‘Man of…’ trilogy, Man of Iron, and covered a 50-year span, from 1958 to 2007. Wajda made his first film in 1954. He had made a war trilogy in the 50s. A supporter of the capitalist regime and a member of Lech Walesa's Solidarity Advisory Council, 1981-89, he was targeted by the communist government. Besides the stunningly visual Afterimage, the films were:

1. Ashes and Diamonds, 1958

On the last day of World War II in a small town somewhere in Poland, Polish exiles of war and the occupying Soviet forces confront the beginning of a new day, and a new Poland. In this incendiary environment, we find soldier Maciek Chelmicki, who has been ordered to assassinate a Russian commissar. But a mistake stalls his progress, and leads him to Krystyna, a beautiful barmaid who gives him a glimpse of what his life could be.

2. Katyn, 2007

In 1939-40, at the beginning of World War II, Soviet soldiers conduct a mass execution of captured Polish officers. With Hitler’s German forces rapidly advancing into Eastern Europe, a surviving Polish officer, Lt. Jerzy, at great risk to his own life, chooses to stay behind with his wife, Ann. The film is an assemblage of a novel by Andrzej Mularczyk, and real life accounts.

3. Man of Iron, 1981

The historic moment of Solidarity (the mass movement that dislodged Poland’s communist regime) is viewed through the eyes of Winkel, a weak-willed TV reporter, sent to Gdansk, to dig-up dirt on the ship-yard strikers, particularly on Maciek Tomczyk, an articulate worker and a strike-leader. At first posing as sympathetic reporter, and then caught up in the historic moment, Winkel is reborn a new man, just as his Polish homeland is reborn, with a new political system. Man of Iron won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

(In 1977, censors from Poland’s Script Commission, the propaganda department of the Central Committee, released Man of Marble, to the Polish audience. The film was hugely popular, as it truthfully told of the Stalinist era of the 1950s, and the 'soft-core' communism of the 1970s.  22 years after Man of Iron, Wajda made a biopic, Walesa: Man of Hope, the final chapter in his Solidarity trilogy. It was a portrait of the life of Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of Poland's Solidarity movement, Lech Walesa, as events in the 1970s lead to a revolution).

4. The Maids of Wilko, 1979

Wiktor, a veteran of World War I, finds himself sad and disaffected in the city, after the death of a close friend. After 15 years of being away from the city, Wiktor returns to Wilko. He comes to realise that he has had a considerable impact on the town and its people. His presence, in turn, forces the young girls of Wilko to evaluate their complicated lives and personal failures.

5. The Promised Land, 1975

Quite a rage at Filmostav Bombay1976 (an early version of IFFI; Mumbai was earlier known as Bombay), Andrzej Wajda’s viscerally vivid adaptation of Nobel Prize-winner Wladyslaw Reymont’s late-19th-century novel is a ruthlessly clear-eyed anatomising of the industrial revolution from the perspective of three young entrepreneurs vying to be the most ruthless.

Wajda, on his family

“My father was an officer, a junior lieutenant in the Polish Army. My mother was a teacher; she graduated from a teaching college and worked at a Ukrainian school. So they were a typical intelligentsia marriage. My father was promoted very quickly and he was moved to Suwalki, to the 41st Infantry Regiment garrison. And that's where I was born. Officers were constantly transferred from one garrison to another, so my father soon moved to Radom.

Professions such as a teacher or a military officer are directed towards other people. A teacher teaches children, an officer also educates, in a sense, disciplining the soldiers in his care. So, both are people who work for others, not only for themselves. I think this quality was very distinct among the Polish intelligentsia in those times and I didn't know that a person could behave otherwise. You live for others, not for yourself.

And suddenly, in 1939, everything collapsed. My father was lost; he went to war and never came back. My mother could not stay at home, she had to go to work, we became workers. Our intelligentsia family found itself in completely different surroundings. I was 13 when the war broke out, so the only things I retained were the things that my home, school and the church had given me until that age.

My father, Jakub Wajda, lived only to the age of 40 and died at Katyn.”

Wajda on “the director’s two eyes”

The good Lord provided the director with two eyes - one to look into the camera, the other to observe intently everything that is going on around him. It is a skill which you should develop and endlessly improve, until you stop making movies (in the case of those trying to make political films this might happen at any moment, so time is running out!) For example: when the camera starts running, the director should watch and see simultaneously:

how the actors are playing;

what the crew members are doing: are they watching the take so that later they will be able to draw conclusions who's responsible for what?

whether the lights haven't been moved: do they illumine the actors as agreed? (basically this is the operator's job, but it is worth taking note of)

the sky: can the take be completed before the clouds obscure the sun?

that actor walking over the rails; is he going to brush his sleeve against a priceless Chinese vase? the microphone, already dangerously low; is it going to get into the frame? and many, many other things, happening on location.

Many years ago, at the start of my career as a director, I used to ask my assistants to take note for me of some things during a take. This inevitably led to misunderstandings, and the evaluated material usually turned out to be disastrous. Unfortunately, this is a job the director cannot share. The members of the crew must know that at any given moment he is in control and has an eye on absolutely everything; only then will they accept his wishes and work really effectively.

(Excerpted from "Podwojne spojrzenie", Warsaw 1998)

*On a snowy morning/I run out/hatless and coatless/as happy as a child--a brief poem by Abbas Kiarostami.

*I believe the films of Kiarostami are extraordinary--Akira Kurosawa.

Every year, the International Film Festival of India pays a special tribute to film-makers who have moved on to their heavenly abodes. One such genius was Abbas Kiarostami, the Iranian legend, who passed away on July 4 this year, aged 76, in Paris, where he had been living for many years. In an eventful and rewarding career, he directed/wrote some 40 features and shorts.

Born in Tehran in 1940, into a large family, Abbas Kiarostami was a student of fine art. Education was free in Iran, and had it not been so, his siblings would not have been all able to pursue higher studies. In 1969, he created the cinema department at the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, where the Iranian New Wave was born. We in India did not see much of it, as international film festivals in India were not so frequent then, or varied in content, as they became after 1976.

It was there that he produced most of his films until 1992, including his first short, The Bread and Alley (1970), and his first feature The Traveller (1974). His early foray, The Report (1977), was banned, following the cultural revolution in Iran. Like many a master, he too is known for a trilogy, the Koker films, comprising: Where is the Friend’s Home? (1987, which was India’s real awakening to the magic of Kiarostami), Life and Nothing More… (1992), and Through the Olive Trees (1994). Koker is the location in Iran that they are all set in. The highest level of pan-continental recognition came with Taste of Cherry, which won the Golden Palm at the Festival de Cannes. Accolades grew with The Wind Will Carry Us bagging the jury prize at Venice in 1999.

He returned to Cannes in competition, with Ten (2002), Certified Copy (2010) – for which French actress Juliette Binoche won the best actress glory, and Like Someone in Love (2012).

Kiarostami’s photography and video installations, including the acclaimed Trees Without Leaves, are exhibited all over the world, and his collections of poems have been translated into a many languages. He directed his first play, Tazieh, in 2003. Ta'ziyeh (or Ta'ziyé, or Ta'ziyah) is a Shia passion play, and has over 200 separate texts in the current repertoire, but all focus on one event: the murder of Imam Hussein, son of Khalifa+Imam Ali, and grandson of the prophet Mohammed, in 680AD, under the orders of tyrant king Yazeed. It is also performed in many parts of India during the month of Moharram. It was staged at the Teatro di Roma/Teatro India, a former soap factory in the crumbling industrial wastelands that line the Tiber, south of Ponte Testaccio. The Teatro India was born in 1999, to offer a second location at the Teatro di Roma, after the historic Teatro Argentina. Artistic Director of the Teatro Argentina, the actor and director Mario Martine, personally chose the name of the new building: India.

Some other honours conferred upon Kiarostami:

The Prix Roberto Rossellini (named after the Italian great), at the Cannes Film Festival (1992)

UNESCO’s Fellini (who can forget Frederico Fellini, also from Italy) Gold Medal (1997)

The Konrad Wolf (East German film director and long-standing President of the East German Akademie der Künst) Preis, of the Academy of the Arts, Berlin (2003).

These seven films of Abbas Kiarostami were chosen for at IFFI:

Like Someone in Love, 2012, France-Japan

In Tokyo, an elderly man and a student/escort girl take on different roles over the course of their unusual relationship. The young sex worker develops an unexpected connection with the widower, over a period of two days.

#Competed for the Palme d’Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.

#Abbas Kiarostami’s final feature film.

Shirin, 2008

114 famous Iranian theatre and cinema actresses, and a French star (Juliette Binoche) are mute spectators at a theatrical representation of Khosrow and Shirin, a Persian poem from the twelfth century, put on stage by Kiarostami. The whole story is told by the faces of the women watching the show.

#First screened at the 65th Venice International Film Festival.

“The story (of Shirin) was not important to me. I mean, I had not pinned my hopes on the story. I just thought they were watching a melodrama film. But I was uncertain about which film. During the course of production, I came across things which I found congenial.

Nezami—who lived almost eight centuries ago—was not only able to make drama. When it came to dramatic features, his works are believed to be as good as Shakespeare’s--but also, he had a perfect understanding of women. The image he created of women was very positive; he portrayed women as being capable and self-reliant. Such personalities are rarely seen even today.

Although Shirin maintains all the feminine, intricate features of women, it proves quite strong. Nezami has created a great picture of a love triangle for us. A triangle one side of which features a king, and another an architect and mathematician, a statue maker, or an able-bodied person capable of conveying confidence to women. I believe they were both ideal for women.”

Take Me Home, 2016, B&W, Short

Abbas Kiarostami takes his camera to south of Italy, and shows us a beautiful and playful video, of alleys and stairs there.

#Kiarostami’s final work.

Taste of Cherry, 1997

A dark drama, about a desperate man on the verge of suicide, who seeks someone willing to bury him, discreetly.

Ten, 2002, Docu-drama/Docu-fiction

Ten different sequences examine the emotional lives of women at significant junctures, including the main protagonist’s.

#Nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.

The Wind Will Carry Us, 1999

A trio of journalists from the city arrive in a little village, with a very unusual mission. They pretend to be communications engineers, but they are awaiting the death of woman who is over 100. Among other things, the film explores cultural differences between a man from the city and from a village.

#Nominated for the Golden Lion at the 1999 Venice Film Festival.

#Won the Grand Special Jury Prize (Silver Lion), the FIPRESCI Prize

#Won the CinemAvvenire at the 1999 Venice Film Festival.

Through The Olive Trees, 1994

The movie is set in earthquake-ravaged Northern Iran, and explores the relationship between the movie director, and the actors. The local actors play a couple who got married right after the earthquake. In reality, the actor is trying to persuade the actress that they should get married.

#Nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival.

Besides these seven films being screened at IFFI Goa 2016, a documentary on Abbas Kiarostami, was screened under the category, ‘Documenting the Legends.’ The documentary is titled ‘76 Minutes and 15 Seconds with Abbas Kiarostami’, sharing 76 minutes and 15 seconds of undiscovered moments of Abbas Kiarostami’s life and work, in commemoration of his 76 years and 15 days of creative journey. The shots of this documentary are selected out of hundreds of hours of footage, filmed during 25 years of friendship, inside and outside Iran, on various occasions: film festivals, photo exhibitions, photography sessions, artistic events, workshops and some unique moments of his daily life. Seifollah Samadian, his friend and long-time collaborator, is the maker. Samadian, who did the cinematography on ABC Africa, organises Iran’s annual photography festival.

Siraj Syed’s IFFI 2016 diary, IV: BRICS by bricks

A film festival, with a competition section, was held in September, in New Delhi, preceding the Brazil, India China, Russia and South Africa (BRICS) summit, to which Goa played host last month. 20 films (4 each from member countries) were screened. Awards were given in five categories: (i) Best Film- Thithi (India); (ii) Best Actor Male- Thabo Rametsi (South Africa); (iii) Best Actor Female- Yulia Pereslid (Russia); (iv) Best Director- Hua Jianqi (China); and (v) Jury Award- Phillilpe Barcinski (Brazil).

The acronym ‘BRIC’ was first used in 2001 by Goldman Sachs in their Global Economics Paper, "The World Needs Better Economic BRICs" on the basis of econometric analyses projecting that the economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China would individually and collectively occupy far greater economic space and would be amongst the world’s largest economies, in the next 50 years or so. As a formal grouping, BRIC started after in 2006. South Africa joined the group in 2011.

Five award winning films formed the BRICS package at IFFI, including the much talked-about and much awarded Indian Kannada language film, Thithi (India | Raam Reddy | 123 min). India was represented on the jury by director T.S. Nagabharana. Since a lot has been written about Thithi already, let us see what the other four films were about.

14+, Russia | Andrei Zaitsev/Zaytsev | 102 min

A modern day Romeo and Juliet, there are 22 songs in this film and one of the songs is composed by a band from India. Alex has been smitten ever since he saw Vika, but she is beyond his reach, as her school and block of flats are enemy territory. Alex, nonetheless, sneaks into her school disco, and plucks up the courage to ask her to dance. Incensed by the intruder, the other boys beat Alex. A turbulent, moving tale of first love, set in a vast suburban conglomeration of tower blocks. The story might recall. Kirill Razlogov, a well-known film Russian film personality, was on the festival’s jury, representing Russia. Interestingly the screenings coincided with a national holiday, Russia Day, which is celebrated on September 3.

Between Valleys, Brazil (co-produced with Uruguay and Germany) | Philippe Barcinski | 80 min

Made in 2012, Between Valleys is about two identical men (double role by the lead actor) who lead very different lives. The two men, Vincente and Antonio, have lives that intersect at a garbage dump. While the first man is a successful business consultant, the latter lives by scavenging. Are they separated twins? Soon, calamity strikes, when dump-trucks stop bringing fresh garbage to this site.

Kalushi, South Africa | Mandla Dube | 110 min

This bio-pic is about a character from Kalushi- The Story of Solomon Mahlangu, which is the story about the real Political hero, Solomon Mahlangu. A nineteen year-old hawker from Mamelodi township, selling vegetables to help support his family. Born in Pretoria in 1956, his father left him in 1962, and from then on only saw him infrequently. His mother was a domestic worker and took sole responsibility for his upbringing. He was tried during 1977-78, during the apartheid era, and subsequently executed. Kalushi was first performed as a play.

Xuan Zang/Xuanzang/Xuan Zhang, China (co-produced with India) | Jianqi Huo | 90 min

Released in China in April, this film is yet to be shown in India. Mumbai, 2016. A student in Mumbai University’s library asks for a copy of the 1870 book, The Ancient Geography of India, by Alexander Cunningham (Jonathan Kos-Read), and reads how his excavations were aided by the writings of the Buddhist monk Xuanzang. In AD 627, Xuanzang (Huang Xiaoming), feeling a calling to travel to the Indian subcontinent and bring back copies of original Buddhist scriptures, sets out on a solo journey westwards. Foreign travel is banned, because the country is at war with neighbours, but Xuanzang convinces Li Daliang (Xu Zheng), the governor of Liangzhou, to let him cross the border, despite the dangers ahead.

The prestigious project is the first official China-India co-production under the agreement signed in 2014. Some familiar Indian faces will greet you on screen, including Ram Gopal Bajaj (Shilabhadra, Nalanda head priest), Sonu Sood (Harsha, king), Mandana Karimi (Harsha’s sister), Neha Sharma (Kumari, Jayaram’s wife), Ali Fazal (Jayaram), Rajesh Khera (Simharsami), Prithvi Zutshi (Juewu, senior Buddhist priest), Sanjay Gurbaxani (Mingxian, senior Buddhist priest), Karim Hajee (Haihui, senior Buddhist priest).

Siraj Syed’s IFFI 2016 diary, V: And the Oscar for restoring classics goes to…AMPAS!

American body Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) is best known for presenting the annual awards, which are characterised by a figurine called the Oscar. Though that is the face of the academy, it does much more service to the cause of both American and international cinema than most people would imagine, including holding an annual student Oscars.

At the Black Box of Panaji’s Kala Academy, AMPAS’s inventory film archivist/short film preservationist Tessa Idlewine, who holds a degree in film archiving and restoration, revealed the extraordinary effort that the academy puts into film storage and restoration, and the pain-staking 20 years it took to restore Indian idol Satayjit Ray’s work. “It’s an on-going exercise that began with the shocking realisation that the academy did not have clips of serviceable quality to go with the audio-visual which was to precede the conferment of the Oscar on Ray, while he would address the gathering via video-link from his hospital bed in Kolkata. The results include the amazing restoration of almost all of his films, the most decorated of which, Pather Panchali, is being shown on Friday at IFFI Goa 2016,” she said.

AMPAS is among the three major film preservation and restoration centres in the USA, the National Archive and the Library of Congress being the other two . During the 1890s-1950s nitrate base was used to make film, and nitrate burns even without oxygen, so many of the titles perished. Even later, after acetate (vinegar-base) came in, the negatives corroded, mainly due to the vinegar (spilled acidic liquid) effect. So, only 20% of films could make it through, from the period 1910-20, and 50% from 1921-1950. Polyester, in use after 1990, is much more durable. Digital is the current rage, but we do not know how long-lasting it will be,” she added. Incidentally, Tessa’s range of duties spans film handling, film identification, preservation, conservation, cataloguing, film archiving ethics, curating, customer service skills, copy- editing, materials management, transcription, typing (70 WPM), and word processing.

Besides the Ray collection, to the restoration of which laboratory Cineteca, in Bolognia, Italy, made the most significant contribution, AMPAS already has 5,500 titles, weighing 1mn lbs/450,000 kg of film, in 8 mm, Super 8 mm, 9.5 mm (who knew about this?), 16 mm, 28 mm (rare indeed!) and the obvious gauge of 35 mm and 70 mm, stored in ideal conditions. Besides, 124 interviews have been recorded, including one with Sharmila Tagore, the yester-years’ Hindi and Bengali film-star, and former Chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). Informal archiving has been going on since the first Oscars, 1928-29 (audio) and formal work started in 1948-49 (audio-visual). Over the years, they have restored films like WestSide Story, Miracle on 34th Street, Oliver and Heaven Can Wait.

Archival Revival--25 Years of The Academy Film Archive, was launched last year, in July, and ran through September, with the Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins-directed classic, West Side Story, flagging it off. And if subsequent programs are anywhere near the quality of the 70MM and 6-track stereo sound restored film print, shown at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theatre,

Miracle was first shown in its restored version on Thursday, December 11, 2015, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater, in Beverly Hills. The 35mm print was from the collection of the Academy Film Archive, courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox, and was presented as part of the Academy’s Gold Standard screening series.

Made in 1947, the film was written and directed by George Seaton, and stars Maureen O’Hara as the cynical Macy’s executive whose equally sceptical eight-year-old daughter (Natalie Wood) is intrigued by the store’s seasonal Santa Claus, who may or may not be the real thing.

Miracle on 34th Street won Academy Awards for Actor in a Supporting Role (Edmund Gwenn), Writing--Motion Picture Story (Valentine Davies) and Writing--Screenplay (Seaton) and earned a nomination for Best Motion Picture (20th Century-Fox). Its lead actress, Maureen O’Hara died in October last year.

Shivendra Dungarpur, who is the Founder-Director of the Film Heritage Foundation (Mumbai) and who made a rivetting documentary on P.K. Nair, the late Director of the National Film Archive of India (Pune), introduced Idlewine and conducted the Q&A session afterwards. He recalled Ray’s legendary cameraman Subroto Mitra wondering whether future generations would be able to appreciate his work with Ray, given the sorry quality of existing prints and VHS tapes that were being used to copy films, those days. “He should have been alive today to see the remarkable restoration made possible by the resources and perseverance of a dedicated few,” wished Dungarpur.

He has collaborated on two world-class restoration projects with Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation: Uday Shankar’s classic film ‘Kalpana’ and eminent Sri Lankan filmmaker Dr. Lester James Peries film ‘Nidhanaya’ that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012 and Venice Film Festival 2013 respectively. He was a donor for the restoration of Hitchcock’s silent film ‘The Lodger’ that was done by the British Film Institute. Shivendra travels the world to meet and extensively interview great masters of cinema for his personal.

Present in audience was Mr. Sid Ganis, Former President of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and American Motion Picture Executive and Producer. Mr. Sid Ganis had a distinguished career in Hollywood as an executive at major studios, including Sony Pictures, Lucasfilm, Warner Bros. and Paramount, and produced films such as Big Daddy, Deuce Bigalow, Mr. Deeds, The Master of Disguise and Akeelah and the Bee. He is a longtime member of the Academy of AMPAS, for which he served four consecutive year-long terms as president, from 2004-2009. At 77, he has had a long and illustrious career.

At a press conference held later, Ganis said that the Academy has been developing a very close relationship with the Indian film-makers, and with Goa, through the International Film Festival of India. In the past few years, the Academy is getting to know Indian celebrities and film-makers and wanting to enhance and expand their relationship with Indian Film Industry. He further added that the Academy is not just an Academy for America or Hollywood alone, but about film-makers and artists across the world. At the 47th IFFI, Mr. Ganis conducted a special workshop on 'Foreign Language Film Selection for Oscar Awards by AMPAS’.

At the same, joint conference, Idlewine described about the criteria, how a film is being selected for preserving, saying that, firstly, preference is given to the Oscar-nominated films, but that is not all. Apart from the Oscar nominated films, the ones, which are unique, important, and decaying, are also preserved. Out of the 37 films under the project, 21 have been restored successfully. Commenting over the preservation of the work of Satyajit Ray, Tessa said that the AMPAS is working continuously to save the artistic works of the maestro.

India’s Top 10 Lost Films – Compiled by late P.K. Nair, the Director and the moving force behind National Film Archive of India (NFAI). (Thanks to Shivendra Dungarpur for the information)

Bhakta Vidur (Alternate Title: Dharma Vijay), 1921, 89 mins

Adopting the perspective of Vidur- the chief advisor to the Kauravas, who, for ethical reasons, sided with the Pandavas prior to the great war of Kurukshetra- the film ‘Bhakta Vidur’ sought to hold a moral lens to the struggle between British colonialists and the Indian resistance.

Bilet pherat (Alternate title: England returned),1921, 68mins

One of the earliest examples of broad, deliberate satire made in the mould of the Hollywood slapstick comedies of the time, ‘Bilet Pherat’ (1921) lampoons the trend of Indians travelling abroad (in those days, usually to Britain) for higher education in a…

Savkari Pash (The Indian Shylock), 1925, 80 mins

A milestone film by Baburao Painter, ‘Savkari Pash’ is notable not just for its courage in going against the grain but also for its technical finesse and poignant treatment of its subject matter. At a time when mythological films were de rigueur, Baburao Painter staked almost everything to make India’s first social realist film.

Balidan (Sacrifice), 1927, 108 mins

‘An excellent and truly Indian film’- The Indian Cinematograph Committee, 1927.

‘Balidan’ was a persuasive effort at bringing about social reform with its story of a conflict between a progressive, rational king and an orthodox, ritual-bound priest.

Alam Ara (1931) Hindi/ Urdu, 124 mins

‘Alam Ara’ occupies its position in Indian film history as the first film to have employed sound and possess a diegetic soundtrack, complete with songs. A swashbuckling tale of warring queens, palace intrigue, jealousy and romance, the film was heavily drawn from Parsee theatre

Sairandhri, 1933, 148 mins

The first Indian film to have been made in colour, (though not indigenously since it was processed and printed in Babelsburg, Germany using the Agfacolor process), ‘Sairandhri’ is a remake of Baburao Painter’s silent classic from 1920, of the same name

Mill (Mazdoor), 1934, 142 mins

This is the only film written by the acclaimed writer Munshi Premchand in which he also played a cameo. The film courted controversy owing to its story of a prodigal son of a benevolent mill worker who inherits the mill and proceeds to treat its workers with disdain.

Seeta (1934), 119 mins

A mythological film with a stellar cast featuring Prithviraj Kapoor as Ram and Durga Khote as Seeta along with some of the most high-profile actors of the time, the film broke new ground by becoming the first Indian film to gain international exposure: it was screened at the 1934 Venice Film Festival where Debaki Bose won an award, the first Indian filmmaker to do so on an international platform.

Zindagi (Life), 1940, 120 mins

One of the highest grossing films of the 1940s, the music for the film was composed by Pankaj Mullick. The film saw P.C. Barua coming together once again with K.L. Saigal along with the actress Jamuna. It was a film that not only challenged social mores but also explored the complexities and consequent disillusionment of an unusual platonic relationship between an unmarried couple living together.

Khoon ka Khoon (Hamlet), 1935, 122 mins

This was the first adaptation of a Shakespearan drama in Indian cinema. Largely a filmed version of a stage performance of the play, the film contains a towering performance by Sohrab Modi in the central role of Hamlet, and is an astute adaptation of the original Shakespeare play. The film marked the feature debut of Naseem Banu, as Ophelia.

Meanwhile, AMPAS is at it all the time, with four goal-posts: Conservation, Preservation, Restoration, Access. Primarily of American Oscar-winners, and, more significantly for world cinema, any film it finds significant worthy of restoring.

We were treated to some mind-boggling and heart-tugging restored clips. Since you were not there, do the next best thing. Don’t miss these restored classics at their screenings, wherever  and whenever you get a chance!

Siraj Syed’s IFFI 2016 diary, VI: Life after Ghatak, and breaking mindsets

Federation of Film Societies of India continues to champion the cause of film culture and appreciation by not only running film societies all over India, but organising the Open Forum at IFFI every year, in collaboration with DFF. At IFFI 2016, it got to share hosting of the six-day platform with the Indian Documentary Producers’ Association (IDPA), the first three days being allotted to FFSI. I missed the inaugural day’s proceedings, but in the second edition, the mid-day meetings of minds focussed on ‘The Scope and challenges for independent film-maker today’.

Six speakers attended the event, which was preceded by the release of a book by Nabarupa Bhattacharjee, the grand-daughter of one of India’s most lauded and posthumously acknowledged directors, Ritwick Ghatak, at the hands of the festival director, Mr. C. Senthil Rajan. Titled ‘Life After Ritwick Ghatak’, it is a collection of memories of Nabarupa’s grand-mother, Surama, who had to bear the brunt of her husband’s misfortunes and illnesses, and ultimately, separation. Asked whether the book was confined to the period after Ghataks’s death (in 1976, aged 50), she revealed that through the eyes of 90 year-old Surama, we will relive the earlier years too.

Goa-based lecturer and theatre veteran Rajeev Shinde confessed that he was a die-hard optimist, having been able to make K Sera Sera (Konkani, included in the Indian Panorama, and the last official screening on the last day of the festival) in 15 days, with a crew that almost entirely consisted of his students. “Don’t worry about the challenges too much; consider the scope that technology offers today, to make better-planned films, in lower budgets.”

Pierre Filmon (now that’s an apt name), of France, is a documentary film-maker, who is here, “…to learn, and not to teach.” Pierre Filmon made his first short film, ‘Blue of China’, in 1996. They were followed by ‘Espousals’ (1999) by Chekhov, and ‘Silence, First’ (2002) with Rüdiger Vogler. His three short films covered fifty festivals in France and abroad and won several prizes. In 2016, he released his first documentary-feature film, ‘Close Encounters with Vilmos Zsigmond’, which brought him to IFFI 2016. Circumstances are pretty much the same in France, he confided, but emphasised the need to connect with your audience base through social media very quickly, for completing a film is just the beginning of your journey.

“Breaking the mind-set that ‘anything that is not main-stream, is not to be touched’ is the biggest hurdle for an independent film-maker” opined indie film-maker Madhu Mahankali, from Hyderabad, who managed a 14-screen release of his Telugu film Parampara (2014). “Netflix offers some hope. Incidentally, in my part of the country, auditoria with seating 100 capacities, tickets priced at Rs. 50-100 ($1-1.5) are springing up. I am sure this will give a great fillip to the screening opportunities of independent film-makers,” he averred. 

Rama, Meena, Senthil, Navarupa and Pierre

Dr. Meena Longjam from Manipur, (“virgin North East India she called it”), who’s short Auto-Driver has won an award, lamented the ethnic hill and valley divide in the region. “An independent film-maker is like a bachelor or a spinster, not answerable to anyone. But funds are always short for him/her. Doc Edge in Kolkata is one source of funds. We need many more,” she exhorted.

Actress and IFFI 2016 selection Jury member, actress Rama Vij has produced three projects too. “Challenges for the independent film-maker have always been there, are there, will be there. My motto is ‘plunge into it; just do it.”

Re-iterating the government of India’s policy of encouraging independent film makers, Rajan shared, “IFFI 2016 has a large number of indies in its package.” On the issue of screening platforms, and low screen density in India, he hopes he recalled, “I recently met a person who organises short film festivals in beer bars. Maybe Goa could replicate this idea!”

On behalf of FFSI, the proceedings were conducted and moderated by Bh.S. S. Prakash Reddy (Regional Secretary, Southern Region) and G.K. Shyam (Secretary).