I came across this piece of news in Struggle News:
To mark the first anniversary of the arrest of Dr Sen, on 14 May 2008 and to call for his immediate release the Free Binayak Sen Film Festival is being organised by concerned citizens and groups around the country. The package of 10 documentaries, presented in [...]
Archive for the 'Cinema' Category
Free Binayak Sen Film Festival
Published by May 11th, 2008 in Activism, Cinema, Health and Human Rights. 0 CommentsMashed Musings finds it quite entertaining -
This is one of the most believable and relevant superhero movies of recent times, something which comes very close to what Spider-Man was. A cast which melt into their roles, dazzling special effects and terse dialogues make this movie worth a watch. The special effects look [...]
Sita sings the Blues
Published by May 1st, 2008 in Cinema, Culture, Recommended Links and South Asia. 0 Comments Accro du thé watched the film, Sita sings the Blues by Nina Paley and is very impressed.
The film is, believe it or not, an animated, blues version of the Indian epic tale of Ramayana, this time with Sita as the main character. As an Indian who grew up watching the Ramayana on television [...]
Vivek calls it a one-time watch, the “ups” include:
Bebo! This movie is Kareena’s answer to Aish of Dhoom 2. She lost pounds and that she makes no bones about while flaunting her figure. Playing a brash don side-kick and sizzlng in a two piece bikini (10 seconds front and back shots), she proves to be [...]
Dr. Rajkumar, the Kannada thespian, was known for more than just his acting skills. He was also a gifted singer, a generous philanthropist, and is often quoted as the last film star who spoke Kannada in its purest and most lucid form. He led a life simple in thought and deed, and was the epitome of humility.
At Rambling [...]
Naryanan Aier gives it a thumbs up
No unnecessary twists and no unnecessary dance and song sequences. A welcome relief from the string of average films that the Mumbai film industry has been throwing at as for the past few months.
Amit gives it 2.5 out of 5, believing that the screenplay was a let-down
Ajay Devgan impresses [...]
Vasuki enters into a conversation with an auto-driver, picks up some inside info about the Kannada movie industry, and gets offered a chance to act in a movie!
Conflicts of caste
Published by April 8th, 2008 in Caste, Cinema, Dalit, Democracy and Society. 0 CommentsOut-caste analyses the ‘portrayal of the conflicts of caste’ in a few Indian films and documentaries:
In Arohan we witness the continuing struggle, symbolic of the endless battle of the underprivileged and the landless, for justice. Parai reveals the status of Dalit population in India with the South Indian village Siruthondamadevi as a classic example. “An [...]
Jahan Bakshi says it starts out with a ‘powerful premise’ but fails to live upto its potential:
Khuda Kay Liyealmost seems like a Pakistani ambassador to India- and that too with a message for peace- and it is with a broken heart and a weird sense of guilt (I almost feel as if I am being [...]
A rant, but amusing. K.R. Ravi doesn’t think much of Bollywood:
Talking of Oscars I am always amused by the way we hold our collective breaths for the results to be announced as if , given the kind of films we send to the Oscars we stood any chance at all .In the end [...]
Satyen Bordoloi, reviewing ‘The Lives of Others’, says ‘there are parallel worlds on offer in this film’:
The film is symbolic in a lot of ways. It’s an Orwellian world and as if paying tribute to author George Orwell and his creation ‘1984?, the film begins in 1984, through to the final fall of physical borders [...]
‘The Mourning Forest’, an exposition of grief and rebirth
Published by March 24th, 2008 in Cinema, India and Spotlight Series. 0 Comments[ This is Essay # 29 in our Spotlight Series. Click here for the archives.]
‘The Mourning Forest’, an exposition of grief and rebirth
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Batul Mukhtiar
Most of us come out of the closing film of MAMI 2008, ‘The Mourning Forest‘ silent. A long film at the end of a long day. Outside Imax, an actor friend says, [...]
Amodini finds ‘zero character development, almost no logic, desultory conversation and some very unfunny lines passed of as humor’ in Race. Phoenixnu asks: ‘When was the last time you saw something so bad that it was funny?’ Swati regrets: ‘Alas the director duo tries to be smart but not intelligent.’
Sai concludes his review with this [...]
Frames and Angles seems to be a new group blog on cinema- the latest post reviews a few films shown at the recent ‘1st Women’s Film Festival’ in Chennai:
The festival’s theme was simple. Movies directed by woman directors, from all over the world. Being conducted by InKo centre, a Indian Korean cultural centre, movies were [...]
Tushar at PFC is quite impressed with Subash Ghai’s offering, the off-beat “Black and White”
Subhash Ghai’s Black & White is interesting for more reasons than one. We have already talked about the reasons and possibilities of this film missing the mark. Surprisingly, it doesn’t. Though nowhere near to a perfect comeback (there isn’t really nothing [...]
Bed Tea finds the way the Indian middle class interacts with Bollywood ‘enlightening’:
Mass hysteria, the making of a mountain out of a molehill? Or a microcosm of a deep sense of unrest about (historical and contemporary) identity in India? I can’t say that I have any answers, or even insight. But Bollywood — and artistic [...]
Reality Shows
Published by February 29th, 2008 in Art, Business, Cinema, Culture, Media, Music, Personal, Society, Spotlight Series and Theatre. 1 Comment[ This is Essay # 21 in our Spotlight Series. Click here for the archives.]
Reality Shows
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Pradip Somasundaran
People have started referring to me as the first reality show winner since the success of reality shows here in Kerala. Well in a way that’s true as there was more reality to the program that I won [...]
Space Bar sees Taare Zameen Par from two different perspectives. Of an adult’s and a child’s.
After the interval, when Nikumbh helps to identify Ishan as dyslexic, it seems like a cheat to an adult because it fails to answer the question of what one is to do with children who are not dyslexic but in [...]
‘What makes you LOL?’
Published by February 25th, 2008 in Cinema, Culture, Humour, Literature and Media. 0 CommentsBombay Addict is talking about ‘old-fashioned laugh-out-loud. Not a smile, snicker, or heh, but a hearty laugh’. Here’s some of what made him LOL:
The earliest stuff made me LOL were all those TV serials mentioned above. I loved them for the simple, situational comedy of everyday life. In movies, “Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro” and “Chashme [...]
Blank Noise
Published by February 18th, 2008 in Activism, Cinema, Community, Culture, Feminism, Human Rights, India, Justice, Patriarchy, Prejudice, Society, Spotlight Series, Women, public space and sexuality. 8 Comments[ This is Essay # !6 in our Spotlight Series. Click here for the archives.]
Blank Noise
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Jasmeen Patheja
How have you felt every time you ignored a stranger’s eyes stripping you naked?
How often have you been a mute witness or spectator to street sexual violence?
How often have you whistled, passed remarks, leched, intimidated a female stranger, just [...]
Dinesh Reddy approves
Ashustosh Gowariker has outdone himself. This movie is a masterpiece, a complete interpretation of what the director has visualized. From costumes, to body language, to background score, to the songs, sets, manpower and lighting… Gowariker has everything spot-on.
Vaneet doesn’t mind the length…
The movie is about 3 and a half hour long, but it [...]
Popular cinema and citizenship
Published by February 13th, 2008 in Caste, Cinema, Human Rights and Society. 0 CommentsS.V. Srinivas examines three Telugu films to study how popular cinema deals with the issues of citizenship, rights and their denial:
With reference to popular cinema, to demonstrate that it reinforces the social construction of citizen and non-citizen figures is facile and inadequate. To my mind how cinema presents the problem and its resolution is more [...]
Soumya Sen isn’t impressed by Taare zameen Par:
That is the biggest problem- the movie seemed to reaffirm the notion that one’s talent needs to get recognized through accolades. A dyslexic child need not be some sort of a maestro to earn his self respect. What even if he hadn’t won, what should be done then? [...]
Meetu believes you shouldn’t rush to the theatres to see “Mithya”. She has a nice quick review.
The tongue-in-cheek, sharp humor might not make you roll on the floor but surely makes you laugh out loud. Unfortunately this is only in the first half. The crisp plot withers away and the acting wanes as the climax [...]
Watered down
Published by February 4th, 2008 in Cinema, Culture, Patriarchy, Women and sexuality. 0 CommentsPadmaja Thakore feels Deepa Mehta’s Water does not do justice to its subject:
The women in ‘Water’ have no desires (except Bua’s hunger for laddoos and Chuhiya’s desire to go home). The only woman (Kalyani) who has any sexual experience is a victim, forced into prostitution. The only man-woman relationship that is not forced (between Kalyani [...]
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